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IN THE 
WAKE OF COLUMBUS 



ADVENTURES OF THE SPECIAL COMMISSIONER SENT 

BY THE WORLD'S COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION 

TO THE WEST INDIES 



BY 



FREDERICK A. OBER 



Author of "Travels In Mexico," "The Silver City.' 
"Montezuma's Gold Mines," etc, etc., 



With above tioo hundred illustrations from photographs by the 
Author, and sketches by H. B. Blaney 



BOSTON 

D. LOTHROP COMPANY 

1893 



OOPVli/*/^ 



Copyright, 1893, 

BY 

Frederick A. Ober 
All rights reserved 



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l^cgipcctfullg BetiicatEti 



AS A PERSONAL TRIBUTE 
TO 

HARLOW N. HIGINBOTHAM 

PRESIOENT OF THE WORLD's COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION 
AND 

WILLIAM ELEROY CURTIS 

CHIEF OF THE LATIN-AMERICAN DEPARTMENT 



AND TO 

ALL OFFICIALS, NATIONAL AND LOCAL 

WHO HAVE CONTRIBUTED TO THE SUCCESS OF THE 

GREATEST EXPOSITION OF THE WORLD'S HISTORY 

BY THE 

SPECIAL COMMISSIONER TO THE WEST INDIES 



PREFACE. 



Sixteen years ago, while sailing between Dominica and Martinique, 
those verdure-clad islands lying midway the Caribbee chain, I first 
looked upon land discovered by Columbus. 

I will not deny that I was strangely thrilled ; nor shall any scoffer put 
me down as a sentimental voyager because I attached to those islands 
an importance not implied in the Admiralty charts. 

In the two succeeding years I had threaded the chain of the Caribbees, 
explored all the islands discovered by the Admiral in his second and 
third voyages, hunted in the forests in which he and his men had en- 
countered the cannibal Caribs, and had lived for months with the de- 
scendants of those same fierce Indians so graphically described by the pen 
of the great Discoverer. 

In 1880 I re-visited the West Indies, and added other islands to those 
already investigated, my object (as on the previous voyage) being the 
ornithological exploration of the Lesser Antilles. Birds and woods — 
the avi-faiina of the islands and the great forests — were the subjects I 
particularly studied ; but, from being constantly on the trail of the great 
Genoese, I at last became interested in the story of his voyagings, and 
began to collect information regarding the places identified with his life 
and labors. 

In 1881, on the coast of Yucatan, I was reminded of his last voyage 
in the year 1502, when he encountered that great canoe laden with cho- 
colate beans, copper utensils and cotton, and guided by mariners of a 
higher order of intelligence than any other of these new peoples he had 
seen. Seven years later, in the Bahamas, I saw that island on which 
Columbus landed — San Salvador or Guanahani — rising ghost-like from 
the sea; the first landfall of the eventful voyage of 1492. The south 
coast of Cuba gave me the emerald " Gardens of the Queen," and the 
" Bay of the Hundred Fires." 



PREFACE. 

Wherever I have wandered, it wiii be seen, I have met with reminders 
of Columbus ; and, having viewed with so keen an interest these jewels 
of his gathering, with which he adorned the crown of Spain, was it 
strange that I was impelled to seek that Mother Country, and that when 
there I found no more precious relics than those of the Admiral of the 
Ocean Sea ? 

Having followed the fortunes of Columbus, in a desultory manner, 
for nearly fifteen years, it was extremely gratifying to have offered me 
the opportunity for further investigation afforded in the appointment as 
Columbian Commissioner to the West Indies. It was purely fortuitous, 
as I had no previous acquaintance with any of the officials ; but, being 
specially charged to search out every spot and relic of the discovery, I 
was thus enabled to carry out my own explorations and complete an 
exhaustive study of the subject. 

In this work, which I have called "In the Wake of Columbus," I aim 
to present what may be termed the environment of the Admiral ; giving 
scenes with which he was identified, starting with the inception of the 
enterprise in Spain, carrying the action across the Atlantic to the first 
landfall, through the Bahamas to Cuba, thence to the scene of the first 
wreck and the first fort, on the coast of Haiti, the first settlement at 
Isabella, the initial attempts at discovery in Espanola, showing where 
the gold was found and the first cities started — in fact, following him 
through all his voyages, writing every description from personal observa- 
tion, and using the historical events merely as a golden thread upon 
which to string the beads of this Columbian rosary. 

Whether my work has been well done or badly done, such as it is I 
now offer it — a tribute to our great Exposition ; to the genius that con- 
ceived, the courage that continued, the energy that executed, and the 
faith that sustained to a triumphant conclusion, this the grandest work 
of its kind the world has ever seen ; the crowning event of a century 
filled with wonders and miracles of man's invention. 
Washington, April, 1893. 



CONTENTS. 



Chapter 

I. The Bridge that Spanned the World 

II. At the New World's Portal 

III. In Guanahani with Columbus 

IV. Where was the Admiral's Landfall 
V. Through the Bahama Isles 

VI. The Commissioner's Mission to Cuba 

VII. North Coast of Cuba to Haiti . 

VIII. The Haitian Civilization . 

IX. The Buccaneers and the Black King 

X. The First American Christmas . 

XI. Round about Isabella . 

XII. Where the First Gold was Found 

XIII. The Port of the Silver Mountain 

XIV. Samana and the Bay of Arrows 
XV. The Holy Hill of Santo Domingo 



Page 

I 

23 

52 

85 
104 

121 

148 

192 
217 
23s 
259 

277 
292 
■^02 



CONTENTS. 

XVI. The Earthquake-buried Towns „ » 321 

XVII. In Santo Domingo City , . . 338 

XVIII. Where is the Tomb of Columbus? , 363 

XIX. Puerto Rico and Ponce de Leon . 388 

XX. Among the Saints and the Virgins . 413 

XXI. An Island quite out of the World . 426 

XXII. The Second Voyage to the New World 448 

XXIII. Carib Islands and Lake Dwellers . 471 

XXIV. Jamaica and the Wreck of Columbus . 492 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Columbus received by the Catholic kings 

after his first voyage . . .Frontis. 

In the Convent Garden ..... j 

Dofia Carmen and Carmencita . ' . . . 5 

The Atalaya of Arbolote ..... 8 

Distant view of the Alhambra .... g 

The marble head of tJie Moor at Santa Fe . . 11 

City gate of Santa Fe ..... 12 

The Bridge of Pities . . . . . , zj 

Sa?ita Fe' across the Vega ..... 75 

Entrance to the Bridge of Pines . . . .18 

The taking of Moclin ..... ig 

The crosses of Zubia . . . . . . 21 

A corner of my garden at Granada ... 22 

Moorish arch at Palos ..... 2^ 

The Mosque of a Tliousand Columns at Cordova . 2^ 

Church of St. George, Palos . . . . 2y 

Seville, with the Tower of Gold in the foreground ji 

The Convent of La Rabida .... J7 

The Mirador of La Rabida .... jp 

In the Convent Court ...... 4.1 

The Columbus Room, Convent of La Rabida . 4^ 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Alabaster tomb at Burgos . 

Cross at La Rabida 

Crossing the Sargasso Sea . 

Map showing the route of the first voyage of 

Columbus 
A salt heap on Fortune Island . 
Windmill for pumping salt zvater 
My '"Ttirtler" .... 
Looking across the lagoons on Watling's Island 
The landing-place of Columbus . 
Shill of BaJiama Indian 
Indian antiquities from the Bahamas 
Carved seat of lignum-vitce from the Bahamas 
Map of Watling's Island .... 
The headland coast of Watling's Island 
Green's Harbor, Watling's Island 
The coast of Watling's Island . 
Map, showing route from Watling's Island to 

Cuba .... 

Indian celt, from Cat Island 
Indian chisel found in the Islands 
Stone axe, Turk's Island . 
Natives of Watling's Island 
Pushing through the canal, Watling's Island 
Cave on Cat Island 
On the beach of Watling's Island 
The silk-cotton tree, Nassau 
Statue of CohiDibus, front viezv 
Statue of Columbus, rear view . 
Guanahani, or Watling's Island — Lady Blake's 

Aquarelle ...... 



^9 
51 
52 

55 
58 
60 
64 
66 
69 

75 
JS 
82 

85 
90 
93 
97 

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102 

J03 

103 

105 
106 
108 
no 
114. 
116 
117 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Tablet bust in cathedral at Havana, in meinory 


1 


of Columbus ..... 




121 


Palm Avenue ...... 




125 


Cathedral St. Maria de la Concepcion, Havana 




Cuba ...... 




130 


The Morro 




133 


Les Cabanas ...... 




135 


Morro Castle, Harbor of Havana 




137 


At the Market 




138 


On the Pasco ...... 




I^I 


Belem ....... 




142 


Real Acadamia, Havana .... 




144 


A bit of old Havana ..... 




147 


Royal Palms ...... 




148 


Selling plants in Havana . . 




150 


Plaza de Armas, Havana .... 




152 


^^ Morning mist," Yinnuri Valley from 


th 


p 


Cumbres ...... 




155 


Yuniuri Valley, from the hill of Guadeloupe 




158 


Mountains of Zibara .... 




160 


North coast of Cuba . 




163 


Baracoa ....... 




166 


In the Volante, Cuba ..... 




i6g 


Frederick Douglas ..... 




173 


Hyppolite ....... 




175 


Hyppolite and staff ..... 




177 






181 


D. F. Legitime ...... 




183 


A view from the residence of the English consul 




Haiti ...... 




186 


Tortuga, the pirates' paradise 




193 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Old Buccarteer zvatch-tower, coast of Haiti 
Sans Sotcci^ the Black King's palace . 
Sans Sotici, ruins of the Black King's palace 
The Black King's castle .... 

Old mortars in the Black King's castle 
Broken arch^ the Black Ki7ig's castle . 
Beauty and the beasts, foiuid at Millet 
A religiotts procession at Cape Haitien 
The Santa Maria, the flag- ship of Columbus 
The zurecked caravel ..... 

In Petit A use ...... 

Soldiers of the guard at rest 

The anchor of Columbus, found at Petit A^ise 

St. JoJin and the Agnus Dei 

The old convent ...... 

Huckster' s shanty, on the river Yaqui 

The Bajo-Bonico ..... 

On the bluff at Isabella .... 

Site of Isabella ...... 

Map of Isabella . . . . . • . 

TJie cactus-covered ruins of Isabella . 
Coco's idol ....... 

View on the Bajo-Bonico near the Hidalgos' pass 

The American ferry across the Yaqui 

In the valley of the Yaqui .... 

" They built a wooden tozver" . 

View of Santiago across the Yaqui 

The site of the tower of Santo Tomas 

The bed of the river Yaqui 

Loading a bull cart . 

Viezv of the Plaza and church at Puerto Plata 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Girl on bullock's back, Puerto Plata . 

The typical beast of burden 

Washerwomen of Haiti .... 

Coaling station, Saniana Bay 
Scene of the first encounter with the Indians 
A typical washerwoman of Samana . 
The approach to Sanchez .... 

A relic from Old Vega .... 

In the Savjznnas of Santo Domingo . 

The manager's house at Sanchez 

View of tlie Royal Plain .... 

Santo Cerro Church and the aged tree 
The shrine of the Virgin worshiped in the time 
of Columbus ..... 

A view of Santo Cerro .... 

A long the river Yima .... 

Window in Rosario Chapel, Santo Domingo 
Ruins of the church built by bequest of Columbus 
Ruins of Fort Concepcion . . . 
A precious relic ....... 

One of the most interesting spots of Jacagua 
The cemetery at Sajitiago . . , . » 
Site of the old church at Jacagua 
Used by the early Spaniards . . .^ , 
TJie whistling jug ...... 

A Santo Domingo seaport towjt . , . . 

Homenage, the oldest castle in A merica 

The house of Columhis . . . . . 

The sun-dial to be seen in Santo Domingo , 
Columbus in chains ..... , 

The cathedral, western entrance „ . 



28J 
288 
2go 
293 
295 

297 
300 

302 

303 
306 

309 
313 

315 
317 
31S 
320 
322 
324 
327 
329 
333 
335 
336 
337 
339 
34-1 
344 
346 
349 
351 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Inscription on an old tombstone . 
View of the cathedral high altar and retable 
The portal of the Mint^ Santo Domingo 
The Homenage ...... 

Bronze statue of Columbus before the door of the 

cathedral in Santo Domingo city 
The Cohtmbiis vaults in Santo Domingo cathedral 
The Colnmbiis casket, end view . 
The Columbus casket, front view 
Facsimile of old baptismal book . 
'Facsimile of inscriptions . . . , 
The tablet and the vault at Santo Domingo 
Arms of Puerto Rico ..... 
General Heureaux ..... 
TJie harbor of San Juan seen from the Casa 

Blanca, or home of Ponce de Leon 
A sugar lighter in Puerto Rico waters 
Native huts and dove cotes 
A long the river ...... 

Sentry box and cemetery gate at San Juan . 
The Casa Blanc a ..... 

The last of him who sought eternal youth . 
Arches of San Francisco Convent, Santo Domingo 

City. .... 
The harbor from the fort . 
Old fort at St. Thomas 
Buccaneer cannon, St. John's 
The ladder .... 

Tozvn of Bottom, Island of Saba 
A tropical sunrise 
Cacao frjiit .... 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Bread-fruit ..... 

St. Patrick's Rock, Saba 

The island of St. Eustatiiis, seen from St. Kitfs 

Washerwomen of Nevis 

Great trees of the high woods 

Banyan-tree, Guadeloupe 

The waterfall out of the clouds . 

Volcano on St. Lucia .... 

Negro boys of Martinique . 

The diamond rock off Martinique 

The pit ons of St. Lucia 

Kingstown, capital of St. Vhtcent 

Palms of the leeward coast, St. Vincent 

The ten little caribs .... 

Beach near the Boca, Trinidad . 

The pitch lake, Trinidad , 

Sunset on the Venezuelan coast . 

Ploughing under the palms . 

Washing clothes at Curacao 

The heart of the cocoa palm 

Carib carvings on a rock in the island of St 
John's ..... 

Don Christopher' s Cove, where Columbus' s car- 
avels were wrecked, i^oj . 

The bay of St. Amt's, Jamaica . 



443 
447 
449 
452 
458 
460 

463 
467 

469 

472 

474 
475 
477 
479 
483 
4S5 
488 



490 
495 

505 

511 
514 



In the Wake of Columbus 



THE BRIDGE THAT SPANNED THE WORLD. 



GARDENS of Granada 
are famous throughout 
Spain, and of them all, 
perhaps none more fasci- 
nating than the Karrnen 
del Gran Capitan. The 
Arabs called them Kar- 
inenes, those hillside 
■ vineyards lying abreast 
the sun of Spain and 
Africa, and this particu- 
lar garden received its name from having belonged to 
the Great Captain, Gonsalvo de Cordova. It was given 
him by King Ferdinand for his assistance at the siege 
of Granada; this ancient vineyard of a luckless Moor. 

All these particulars were set forth upon a tablet let 
into the wall above one of the fountains that supplied 

1 




2 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

water for the household. Centuries old, as was the 
dwelling attached, yet it did not present an appearance 
of antiquity, for annual coats of whitewash kept fresh 
its thick stone walls, while the roofing-tiles were rich 
in reds and mellow tints of age-imparted browns. 

Perhaps I may never attain more nearly to an earthly 
paradise than I did in my residence in this beautiful 
garden ; and it was by the merest chance that I became 
aware of its existence, and possessed it during the space 
of a month. In Seville one day, where I had quarters 
in the house of a priest, I encountered an English 
artist whose eccentricities were a constant wonder to 
the dwellers there. At the time of our meeting he 
was engaged in kicking his slippers from the pavement 
of the patio to the roof -tiles of the house, a feat which 
he performed to his own entire satisfaction and the 
openly-expressed astonishment of his Spanish specta- 
tors. As he was going to Granada, it happened we 
traveled together, and when there he introduced me to 
the owners of the garden, who consented to take us as 
dwellers therein for whatever time we might elect to 
remain. The nominal head of the establishment was 
Don Nicolas, a small asthmatic gentleman who did 
business in the city of Granada; the actual and authori- 
tative Presence was Dona Carmen, his wife : tall, stately, 
magnificent; but the real ruler, the resident queen of 
Carmen del Capitan, was little Carmencita, their joint 
possession and pride. Rosalie, the smiling maid-of-all- 
work, completed the family circle which, from center 
to circumference, was so entirely at our service that it 
seemed as though it must have been specially created 



THE BRIDGE THAT SPANNED THE WORLD. 3 




IN THE CONVENT GAKDEN. 



for US, and made only to revolve in anticipation of our 
needs. 

This, then, was the garden in which I had ensconced 
myself for an attack upon the outposts of American 
history. 

I have chosen it as vantage ground, as a base of 
operations; for, in our little journeys in and about the 
world, we all need a starting-point ; a place to keep in 
mind for retreat, or a deposit for our plunderings. One 



4 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

may wander, and gather things new and old, but if one 
has no home to return to where he may accumulate the 
products of his toils and contemplate their values, what 
good, then, his gatherings ? I felt almost as secure in 
my garden as the old father of Boabdil, who fought 
Ferdinand so gallantly, must have felt in his mountain 
fortress in the Alpujarras; and, like him, I made many 
a foray into the historic fields around me, returning 
always well-laden with richest spoil. My companion 
in these adventures was Jose, the gardener, whose 
duties permitted him a day off whenever he liked, 
and whose poverty made him gladly accept an oppor- 
tunity for adding a few dollars to his scant salary. He 
knew all the country round about and its traditions, 
and, with the help of Washington Irving's "Conquest," 
which I carried in my pocket, we visited and identified 
all the places of interest in the Vega. 

As I have said, I went to Spain to study the begin- 
nings of American history, and as the central figure of 
that history is Christopher Columbus, we shall visit all 
the most important places connected with his life after 
he became interesting as the Personage with a purpose. 
We shall take him at the outset of his career of dis- 
covery and follow him to the end. And in assuming 
that Columbus is the hero of America's initial appear- 
ance upon the stage of history, I do not deny the great 
Norsemen anj'-fhing; only that the Genoese made his 
discovery known, while the first visitors did not, and 
through Columbus the way was opened whereby America 
was peopled with those who brought the blessings of 
civilization. 



THE BRIDGE THAT SPANNED THE WORLD. 5 

Leaving this question of honors to the historian, let 
us inquire a Httle into the conditions prevailing in Spain 
at the close of the fifteenth century, in the last decade 
of which her star was in the ascendant. Following the 
successive invasions of the Phoenicians, the Carthagi- 
nians, the Vandals and the Goths, came the Moors, at 
the opening of the eighth century. The power of the 
Goths terminated with the fall of Roderick, their last 
king, who was overwhelmed beneath the Arab flood 




DONA CARMEN AND CAKMENCITA. 



6 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

from Africa. For nearly seven hundred years, the Moors 
possessed the better part of Spain ; they built mosques 
and palaces, and intended their descendants should own 
this fair land forever. They gave to Spain a distinctive 
people, as well as Oriental forms of speech and of archi- 
tecture. The Moorish invasion had been almost mirac- 
ulous in its wide-spread conquests ; but finally came the 
time when they, too, must succumb, and to the prowess 
of northern arms. Down from the mountains of the 
North, from the Asturias and the Pyrenees, swept the 
Castilian armies, wave after wave, until were wrested 
from the Africans the soil and cities they had won with 
so much bloodshed, and the conflict of centuries culmi- 
nated in the fall of Granada, in 1492. Toward the 
close of the fifteenth century, the only strongholds 
remaining to the Moors lay in Andalusia, called by 
the Spaniards the "Land of the most Sacred Virgin, " 
because of its delightful climate, its fruitful fields, and 
its natural advantages as a dwelling-place for man. 
When at last the union of Isabella and Ferdinand joined 
the forces of Leon and Castile, then appeared possible 
the long- deferred, long-hoped-for scheme of universal 
conquest, and the ultimate expulsion of the Moors from 
their territory. The most fascinating episodes of that 
final period of warfare occurred in the Vega of Granada, 
and among the hills surrounding this beautiful plain. 

Standing conspicuously upon every hill-crest overlook- 
ing the Vega are the remains of Moorish watch-towers, 
their atalayas^ from which the watchful sentinels flashed 
blazing signal-fires at the appearance of an enemy. 
Even to-day, they may be seen in various places, lone 



THE BRIDGE THAT SPANNED THE WORLD. 7 

and solitary landmarks, though useless now, around the 
fruitful valleys they were built to guard. Centuries have 
slipped by since the danger-signals flamed from their 
summit-platforms, and they are now fast going to ruin 
and decay. One such atalaya rose above the hill of 
Elvira, always visible from the Alhambra at sunset, 
black sentinel 'against the brilliant sky. This tower I 
took as the objective point of my first foray; and one 
May morning, guided by Jose, I left the Karmen, passed 
through the beautiful grove of elms to the Alhambra, 
and thence down the Darro, through the half-sleeping 
city of Granada, seeking the distant hills. Fain would 
I linger by the way to describe the beauties of the 
palace we left behind, and the elm-grove in which I 
have heard the nightingales singing at midnight, as 
well as the golden-sanded Darro, down the right bank 
of which we strolled. It was delightfully cool in the 
grove, where the birds were twittering preparatory to 
their matin music, and until we were well out upon the 
plain beyond Granada, we did not feel the heat of the 
sun. Three hours later we were reclining at the foot of 
the tower, which is locally known as the Atalaya of 
Arbolote, whence we had a view outspread that well 
rewarded the long and somewhat dusty walk. Nearly 
all the Vega lay before us. At our feet were the 
remains of old Roman Illora, dating from a period near 
the birth of Christ ; beyond, Granada, dark in the val- 
ley, with the Hill of the Sun crowned by the Alhambra, 
above it ; and behind, the shining crests of the Sierra 
Nevada, broadly breasting the sun ; 

" Like silver shields new burnished for display." 



IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 






As in the time of Columbus, so now : smiling plain, 
dark masses of olive-trees, silver threads of streams 
coursing emerald meadows, frowning battlements cap- 
ping the Alhambra hills, and glistening snow-peaks 
lying against the sky. Columbus saw all this, and, 
though he has left no description of it, its beauty 
impressed him, for in his voyagings through the island- 
dotted seas- 
on which we 
shall follow 
him — he con- 
stantly recurs 
to the charms 
of Andalusia. 
But Gran- 
ada and the 
Alhambra we 
have left be- 
Before us lies a city seldom visited by strangers ; 
a city sleeping in the memories of the past, and with no 
tie connecting it with the present. Four centuries agone 
— and three years more — the armies of Isabella and 
Ferdinand had advanced their line of conquest to the 
mountain wall around the Vega. One after another 
the Moorish towns and cities had fallen before the 
implacable Ferdinand: Zahara, Antequera, Alhama, 
Loxa, Illora, Moclin; until, in 1490, Granada stood 
alone ; isolate, crippled, yet proudly defiant. 

In April, 1491, the Spanish arm.y, horse and foot, fifty 
thousand strong, poured over the hills and into the 
Vega, intrenching themselves upon the site of Santa Fe, 







hind. 



THE ATALAYA OF AKBOLOTE. 



THE BRIDGE THAT SPANNED THE WORLD. 



9 



as a situation strategically important, in the center of 
the plain. 

Granada lay full in sight before them. Where to-day 
rise the towers of its great cathedral, the minaret of a 
Moslem mosque towered skyward, and from its summit 
the muezzin called the faithful to prayers: '■'■Allah il 
Allah! Great God! great God! Come to prayer ! come 
to prayer! It is better to pray than to sleep!" So 
near were the soldiers of Ferdinand to the object of 
their desires, that they could almost hear the summon- 
ing cry of the muezzin. 

Upon the site of the fortified camp, which was first of 
tents, then huts of wood and stone, was founded, in the 
year 1492, the 

town of Santa ^^ mw ^^ 

Fe, or the City 

of the Holy 

Faith. It may 

now be seen as 

I saw it that 

hot day in 

May, scarcely 

lifting itself 

above and beyond broad fields of barley, wheat and 

alfalfa. A semi-somnolent city is Santa F6 ; completely 

walled about, with most picturesque gates facing the 

cardinal points. If the term "dead-and-alive " may be 

applied to any place, it certainly may be to this. Yet 

its history is interesting, and no student of the conquest 

of Granada can afford to pass it by without at least a 

peep into its past. 




DISTANT VIEW OF THE ALHAMBKA. 



10 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

Although we are dealing with Columbus, yet we may 
not neglect the historical accessories that make his story 
worth the telling. A hundred books, at least, will give 
us the tale of his life and adventures, but they only re- 
peat what is already familiar ; and since a multitude of 
writers are even now on the search, hunting the victim 
from the cradle to the grave, as it were, we ourselves 
will not join in, but will lie quietly in ambush ; per- 
chance we may gain glimpses of the great man, una- 
wares. Hence I will claim the privilege of digressing 
a while, merely to relate one of those exciting encount- 
ers that took place while the army was encamped at 
Santa Fe, and which, while it enlivened the monotony 
of camp life, kept up the spirits of the men. 

Among the fiercest of the caballcros in command un- 
der the Spanish king, as the army lay before Granada, 
was, the historians tell us, Hernando del Pulgar. Cast- 
ing about, one day, for an opportunity to distinguish 
himself, he espied the city gate of Granada but negli- 
gently guarded. Dashing in, he somehow evaded the 
Moorish sentinels, and reached to the great mosque in 
the center of the city. Losing not a moment, he rode 
his horse against the door, and there, with his poniard, 
affixed a bit of wood with Ave Maria printed on it. 
Then he wheeled about and darted through the gateway, 
with great clatter of hoof and clank of weapon, hurling 
cries of defiance at the astonished Moors, and escaped 
with a whole skin to the camp. 

The Moors at first were puzzled to accotmt for this 
foray; but when they finally found the Ave Maria 
pinned against the great door of the mosque, they were 



THE BRIDGE THAT SPANNED THE WORLD. 



11 



beside themselves with rage. And the next day an 
immense Moor, one of the most powerful and renowned 
of the Moslem warriors, insolently paraded before the 
Christian host, with the sacred emblem attached to the 
tail of his horse, and dragging in the dust. At the same 




THE MARBLE HEAD OF THE MOOR AT SANTA FE. 



time he defied any one of the cavaliers to meet him in 
single combat before the assembled armies. 

Now, Ferdinand had forbidden any of his nobles to 
engage in this manner with the Moors, because their 
cavaliers were better horsemen, more skilled in the 
feats of the tourney, and generally came off victorious, 
thus greatly weakening the esprit de corps. But this 



12 



m THt~"WinCE OF COLUMBUS. 




insult to the Christian religion could not be borne, and the 
cavaliers all burned to avenge it. A fiery young Castil- 
ian, Garcilasso de la Vega, rushed before Isabella, and 
importuned her to allow him to defend the holy faith 

against this pa- 
gan Moor. Her 
permission re- 
luctantly grant- 
ed, he armed 
himself com- 
pletely and went 
to meet the Mos- 
lem, who was 
almost twice his 
size, and mount- 
ed in a superior 
manner. And 
yet, notwithstanding the apparent odds against him, 
young Garcilasso came out of the terrible combat tri- 
umphant. He killed the boastful Moor, rescued the 
emblem, and laid the head of his adversary at the feet 
of Isabella. 

The site of this memorable encounter, and the spot 
where Isabella sat to witness it, is marked by a great 
stone cross, protected by an artistic canopy. Subse- 
quently, a church was erected in Santa Fe, in which to- 
day the sacristan can show you a silver lamp presented 
by Isabella; but the most striking thing about this 
church stands between its two great towers : the marble 
head of the vanquished Moor, of heroic size, lies there 
placidly, and above him rises the lance which was used 



CITY GATE OF SANTA FE. 



THE BRIDGE THAT SPANNED THE WORLD. 



15 



to slay him, flanked with palm leaves, across which is 
the emblem of the faith. Thus, everywhere in Spain, 
are we reminded of the days of chivalry and their 
romances, and the scenes of the distant past brought 
vividly before us. 

At the door of Isabella's silken tent another hero 
stands awaiting royal favor. He asks no boon of her, 
but only aid to carry out his schemes of conquest; he 
craves permission, like Garcilasso, to enter the lists 
against the infidel. The Moors are conquered, but 
mayhap there are other Pagans, in the world unknown 
beyond the sea. 

He, Columbus, with his sovereigns' aid, and by the 



=>f^2L Jf^ 




Si\T\ FK ACI OSS THF \ ItG V. 



grace of God, would go forth single-handed to battle 
for the Crown. 

It is the month of January, 1492. Briefly, the story 
of Granada's downfall may be told. That month Gra- 
nada capitulated, and the last stronghold of the Moors 
in Europe passed from them forever. The year that 
saw the star of Spain in the ascendant, was the birth- 



16 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

year also of the history of civihzation in America. The 
two great events are coeval, for, as the star of the 
Orient sank toward Africa, the star of the Occident 
rose upon the horizon. And this era of exploration 
and discovery was to be opened through the genius of 
an obscure, almost unknown individual, waiting hum- 
bly his sovereigns' pleasure in their camp at Santa Fe. 
Spain's victories hitherto had been on land; for cent- 
uries she had been engaged in wresting from the in- 
fidel her own lost territory, foot by foot, city by city, 
until at last the great work was accomplished. Now, 
before their wearied soldiers had recovered breath, 
while their arms were yet tired with wielding the sword, 
and the blood of the slain was still fresh upon their 
weapons, the Spanish rulers were again importuned by 
that Genoese adventurer. He had gone away at last, 
disheartened, but had returned again at the solicitations 
of the queen's old confessor and at the instance of Isa- 
bella herself. He had returned as persistent, as calmly 
confident of ultimate aid from some quarter, as before. 
He abated no jot or particle of his ridiculous demands: 
he wanted ships and caravels, sailors, provisions, muni- 
tions, articles for barter. He demanded that he be 
made Admiral of the Ocean Sea; Viceroy over the re- 
gions discovered ; the privileges of the aristocracy, and 
one tenth the revenue of that undiscovered country; in 
truth, there seemed no limit to his demands. And this 
from an unknown man whose only claims were to pos- 
sessions yet to be possessed : nothing more or less than 
veritable "Castles in Spain." Perhaps, if the serious 
queen ever did take a humorous view of a situation, she 



THE BRIDGE THAT SPANNED THE WORLD. 17 

may have seen the funny side of this one, and have 
yielded at last out of sheer weariness. 

At first, however, notwithstanding the urgent solici- 
tations of her respected confessor, she could not bring 
herself to accept the terms of Columbus, and he de- 
parted again, this time fully resolved to abandon the 
country. This, however, he was not allowed to do, for 
he had not accomplished more than two leagues of his 
journey back to the Convent of La Rabida, before he 
was overtakened by a courier from Isabella promising 
acquiescence to his demands. 

Whether or not the queen did this of her own voli- 
tion, whether her treasurer offered to find the requisite 
money for the outlay, or whether she proffered the 
pledge of her jewels, are matters for the historians to 
settle. The chances are, that Isabel did not offer to 
pledge her jewels, since they were, probably, already 
pledged to aid in furnishing the sinews of war for the 
siege of Granada. But let it suffice that she promised 
assistance, and, once embarked in the enterprise, gave 
the future admiral both pecuniary and moral support. 
All the more creditable is this to Isabella, since it was 
done at a time when the royal treasury had been com- 
pletely exhausted by the drafts upon it for the Moorish 
wars, and when she might have been supposed to be 
already sated with the glory of conquest and not anxious 
for further exploits. 

The place at which the royal courier overtook Colum- 
bus has been preserved in tradition ever since, and is 
pointed out to-day with unerring finger. He had reached 
a river flowing through the Vega, spanned then, as 



18 



IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 



now, by the "Bridge of Pines." It is locally known as 
Pinos Piiente, and was the object of another little jour- 
ney by Jose and myself, after we had visited, and I had 
photographed, Santa Fe. We had noted it from our 
atalaya tower, and one day, through seas of scarlet 

and crimson 
poppies, had 
descended to 
the valley. 

Although 
the discussion 
was carried on 
in Santa Fe, 
still this spot 
may be looked 
upon as that at 
which the ca- 
reer of Colum- 
bus really 
began; the turn of the tide in his fortunes, and the 
turning-point in his journey. For this reason, and in 
view of the far-reaching consequences of this departure, 
I have taken the liberty of calling this Pinos Puente the 
" Bridge that Spanned the World. " It is a structure of 
stone and masonry, creditable to its designers, with a 
gateway and a turret, spanning the stream with two 
high arches, and is nearly always a scene of busy life. 
I rambled with my guide along the banks, and climbed 
the hill above, where are the remains of an ancient 
Moorish fort, finally resting at a meson, where the sim- 
ple folk cheerfully served us with the best they had. 




ENTRANCE TO THE BRIDGE OF PINES. 



THE BRIDGE THAT SPANNED THE WORLD. 



21 



Another trip, on another day, was to Modin, on the 
outer verge of the Vega, where the Moorish fortifica- 
tions are exactly as left after being battered to pieces 
by the cannon of King Ferdinand, the year previous to 
the fall of Granada. Amongst the wood-carvings around 
the silleria^ or choir-stalls, of Toledo cathedral, is one 
depicting the taking of Moclin ; all the incidents of the 
siege of Granada, in fact, are there illustrated. 

Again, we visited successively Loxa, Illora and Zubia, 
at which last place Isabella narrowly escaped capture 
by the Moors, and where a group of great stone crosses 
marks a religious shrine. Granada and its environs yet 
present a field 
for exploita- 
tion to the 
enthusiastic 
student of his- 
tory, whether 
he be specially 
interested in 
the closing 
scenes of 
Moorish domi- 
nation, the 
lives of Ferdi- 
nand and Isabella, or the dawn of discovery in America. 
Around Columbus, however, cluster the associations of 
Santa Fe and the Bridge of Pines, at the opening of this 
drama of the siege of Granada; thence, he followed the 
court as the army advanced to take possession of the 
city, and tradition relates, with an air of authenticity, 




THE CROSSES OF ZUBIA. 



22 



IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 



that in the Alhambra itself Columbus was a visitor 
a while, pacing gloomily its columned corridors while 
the issue of his voyage was pending. Here, it is re- 
lated, took place a memorable interview between the 
high contracting parties, in the beautiful " Hall of Jus- 
tice," the Sala del Tribunal^ which bounds one side of 
the famous "Court of Lions," and is a dream of beauty. 
Here, where the swart Moors r.eclined and dreamed away 
the noontide hours, and the stern caliphs sat, in days 
departed, the queen received Columbus. 

During a month of most delightful days, I myself 
dwelt within the Alhambra walls, sallying forth upon 
excursions, as narrated ; wandering through the palace 
by daylight and by moonlight, and weaving about the 
departed Moors, the Christian conquerors and the great 
Navigator, the tissue of a fabric I have herein attempted 
to unfold. 




A CORNER OF MY GARDEN AT GRANADA. 



II. 



AT THE NEW WORLD S PORTAL. 




A 



S we have seen, Colum- 



MOORISH AKCH AT PALOS. 



success, departed for Palos, 
invested with all the rights 
and privileges he for years 
had been so anxious to obtain. 
But two months after the 
surrender of Boabdil to Fer- 
dinand and Isabella, the same hands that had received 
the emblems of their triumph over the Moors affixed 
the royal sign-manual to a paper confirming Colum- 
bus in titles in a yet undiscovered country beyond' 
the unknown sea. A commemorative chapel on the 
bank of the Xenil marks the spot made famous by the 
surrender of the Moor; in the royal chapel attached to 
the cathedral of Granada the alabaster tombs of the 
king and queen are sacred shrines, to which pilgrims by 
thousands annually wend their way; but no monument 
rises above the spot where the great Navigator en- 
gaged to barter a world for prospective emolument and 
titular honors. 

23 



24 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

We know with what tenacity he clung to the scheme 
he had formulated for the enrichment and ennobling of 
himself and his family, preferring to abandon the coun- 
try rather than to abate one iota of his project. And it 
was with doubtful pace that he followed the messenger 
from Isabella who had overtaken him at the Bridge of 
Pines, with the promise of her consent. 

But at last he was on his way to Palos, triumphant. 
And while he is pursuing his way toward the coast, let 
us briefly review his history hitherto. 

He was born in Genoa, the historians tell us, in the 
year 1435 — this may not be the exact date; and re- 
:garding his youth and early manhood there is the same 
obscurity; but about the year 1470, we find him resid- 
ing in Portugal, the birthplace of his wife, and some- 
what later engaged in correspondence with Toscanelli. 
According to his son's statement, in 1477 he " navigated 
one hundred leagues beyond Thule; " but in 1482 he is 
in the South of Spain, having vainly endeavored to 
enlist the king of Portugal in his plans, and is sent to 
Isabella by the Duke of Medina Cell, at the court in 
Cordova. He follows the court to Salamanca in i486, 
and there has audience with the queen. In 1487 he is 
before the Council in the Dominican Convent ; he returns 
to Cordova the same year in the train of Isabella, whence 
he is summoned to the military camp at Malaga. The 
year 1489 finds him before the walls of Baza, where he 
witnessed the surrender of the Moors under Boabdil the 
Elder, and doubtless conversed with the two monks 
who there came to the queen from Jerusalem. 1490 
sees him in Seville and Cordova, whence he finally 



AT THE NEW WORLD'S PORTAL. 



25 



departs in disgust for the port of Huelva, on his way 
stopping at the Convent of La Rabida, where he attracts 
the attention of the prior, and subsequently has the 




THE MOSQUE OF A THOUSAND COLUMNS AT CORDOVA, 



famous conference with the friar, the village doctor of 
Palos, and Martin Alonzo Pinzon of Moguer. 

This conference in the convent took place in the latter 
part of the year 1491; as the result, a messenger was 
dispatched to Isabella, then in camp at Santa Fe, who 
returned after fourteen days with royal orders for the 
prior to go to Granada ; he departs in haste, and eventu- 
ally returns with the queen's command for Columbus to 
appear before the court, and with the necessary money 
for the trip. 



26 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

Columbus arrives at Santa Fe the first week in Janu- 
ary, 1492, in good time (as we have seen) to witness the 
surrender of Granada. He has audience with his sover- 
eigns, but cannot agree upon terms, so prepares to 
depart from Spain. He is overtaken by the queen's 
courier at the Bridge of Pines, returns, and is finally 
made happy with the royal consent. 

The "Capitulation" for conquest and exploration is 
signed April 17, 1492, and the twelfth of May he sets 
out for Palos. Ten days later — the twenty-third — 
the royal command for the people of Palos to furnish 
men for the voyage is read in the church of St. George, 
and the Pinzon family come to his assistance. Prepara- 
tions are hurried forward, and by the first of August 
the vessels drop down the Rio Tinto to the Domingo 
Rubio, where the final departure is taken at the Con- 
vent of La Rabida. This much for a chronological 
statement of events. We will now retrace our steps, 
and visit in person the scenes of the great Discoverer's 
weary wanderings and his final gladsome trip through 
Andalusia. 

Memorials of Columbus are scattered throughout 
Spain, to-day; in Madrid, the royal armory contains his 
armor, the naval museum one of his charts ; at Valla- 
dolid, in 1506, he died, and the house is still pointed 
out in which he drew his last breath ; the convent, also, 
in which his remains were first deposited. 

But though we may trace the wanderings of our hero 
over a great portion of Spain, it is in the South that 
the most interesting events occurred. Vastly rich is 
Seville, the queen city of the Guadalquivir, in Columbian 



AT THE NEW WORLD'S PORTAL. 



27 



memories; for here we find that valuable library, the 
Colombina, bequeathed the city by his son Fernando, 
containing twenty thousand volumes, among them some 
that once pertained to the great man himself; one with 
marginal notes by his own hand, and one of his charts. 
Those very islands of the Bahamas, which I myself 
have seen, dim and shadowy, and shining in the sun, 




«:<,.or=.<.7i\ol 



CHURCH OF ST. GEORGE, PALOS. 



are here outlined by the great Discoverer himself, upon 
paper discolored and stained by sea-salt, as though it 
had accompanied him on all his voyages. 

That, however, which oftenest drew me and longest 
held me was the marble slab in the pavement of the 
great cathedral' that formerly covered the remains of 
Columbus, and now marks the resting-place of his son 
Pernando, with its world-famous inscription : A Castilla 



28 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

y d Leon, Mundo Niievo dio Colon; ' ' To Castile and to 
Leon, a New World gave Columbus." Thus, although 
the remains of Columbus himself are now in the New 
World, many glorious memorials of him are to be seen 
in Spain, and mainly in Seville. 

In the Lonja, containing the royal archives of the 
Indies, in the city of Seville, is a mass of material per- 
taining to the conquest of the West Indies and Mexico 
that has never been exploited. Inaccessible to the 
ordinary tourist, great bundles and packages of letters 
and documents lie securely intrenched behind glass 
doors. But affixed against the walls, at intervals, are 
certain letters that bear their history on their faces;: 
they are open and can be read by every passer-by. 
They are well-nigh priceless; unique, at all events, for 
most of them are from the great conquistador es them- 
selves. The first of these, in point of age, is one from 
Magellanes, dated at Seville, October 24, 15 18. 

Another, date October 12, 1519, is from Diego Velas- 
quez, written from La Isla Fernandina (Cuba), giving 
notice of the disobedience of Cortez, who had taken 
possession of the ships and armament Velasquez himself 
had collected, and sailed away to what (as we now 
know) resulted in the conquest of Mexico. 

Less than three years later, a letter is written by the 
indomitable Cortez himself to Charles V., announcing 
his great discoveries and acquisitions. It was written 
from Coyoacan (near the city of Mexico) May 15, 1522; 
one of those veritable Cartas de Cortes that have proved 
so valuable to historians. 

Bearing date December 13, 1520, is a letter from 



AT THE NEW WORLD'S PORTAL. 29 

Diego Colon, son of Columbus, then in Santo Domingo 
as viceroy. 

Another, the same year, addressed to the king, 
Charles I. (Charles V. of Germany), is from that fiery- 
hearted monk, Bartholomew de las Casas. Long before 
that letter was written, had the wrongs of the down- 
trodden Indians begun to cry for redress, through the 
good Bishop of Chiapas. 

Next in sequence comes a letter from Juan Ponce de 
Leon, "Puerto Rico, February lo, 1521." He had 
then, doubtless, given up his search for the "Fountain 
of Youth," and was preparing for that last venture in 
which he lost his life. A confirmation of the statement 
by historians, that Francisco Pizarro, the conqueror of 
Peru, could not write his name, is found here ; for the 
letter purporting to be his bears his sign-mark only. 

With date 1526, there is a royal gediila of Charles I. ; 
and another from the same king to Don Louis Colon, 
in 1537; another, by Phillip IL, in 1560. 

A letter written in July, 1539, from Hernando de 
Soto, touches Americans, surely, for it comes from the 
Puerto del Espiritu Santo, coast of Florida; Tampa 
Bay, it is called now; and De Soto was then disembark- 
ing his forces, preparatory to that terrible march through 
the Floridian wilderness that ended at the Mississippi, 
and brought him to his grave. 

In 1556, that stout soldier and truthful historian, 
Bernal Diaz del Castillo, who fought all through the 
Mexican wars under Cortez, writes a letter to his sover- 
eign. He was then governor of Guatemala, and his 
letter comes thence: "Guatemala, 10 de Mayo, 1556." 



30 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

In these documents we have a history epitomized, and 
romance condensed, with suggestions enough to keep an 
elaborator busy for a lifetime. 

But one more name, that of Columbus, is necessary to 
bring before us the conquest and discoveries of that 
period so rich in barbaric treasure, so red with Indian 
blood misspilt : 

" No J my olla sin tociiio, 
Ni sermon sin Agiistino." 

"No olla without its pork, no sermon without its 
saint," says the Spanish proverb. The saint in my ser- 
mon, these days, when the quadri-centennial lends an 
interest to everything American and Columbian, is 
Saint Colon; and it was to obtain information regarding 
his voyages, that I visited the Lonja and Columbian 
Library at vSeville, and later the port of Palos and 
Convent of La Rabida. 

At Seville, I dwelt in the house of a cleric, and my 
friend gave me a letter of introduction to the cu?'a of 
Moguer, the town nearest to Palos. It was a bright 
morning in April when I left the city for a trip to Palos, 
and the valley of the Guadalquivir was bright in green- 
est fields of grain and of olive orchards. Seville is, in 
truth, of queenly aspect, sitting in the midst of the fer- 
tile plain, her towering Giralda rising far above the out- 
line of distant hills. For two thirds the distance the 
railroad runs through a fertile and highly-cultivated 
plain, but the rest was mainly barren, though covered 
with sheets and beds of purple flowers in beautiful 



AT THE NEW WORLD'S PORTAL. 



31 



"bloom. We passed the ruins of a Roman fortification 
of times most ancient, and then crossed a river flowing 
over iron-colored rocks, most curiously worn. The char- 
acter of the soil was shown in its color, which was yel- 
low and deep red ; noting which I inferred, and rightly, 
that we had seen at last the historic Rio Tinto — the 




SEVILLE, WITH THE TOWER OF GOLD IN THE FOREGROUND. 

Wine- colored River, from which Columbus sailed four 
hundred years ago. 

Just sixty years before me, in the spring of 1828, a 
man more famous than I traversed this same route, and 
with the same intent: gentle and genial Washington 
Irving. But there was no railroad in those days, and 
he was obliged to make the journey on horseback, tak- 
ing as many days, perhaps, as I did hours; but enjoying 
it, every mile. 



32 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

Leaving the railway at the station of San Juan del 
Puerto, I took the diligencia^ an old carriage, for the 
town of Moguer, a league distant on a hill, where I 
found, contrary to my expectations, good accommoda- 
tions : a fonda^ or house of entertainment, with clean 
beds and an excellent table. I was soon served with a 
good breakfast, and "mine host " took quite a fancy to 
me; insisting on taking me to the places of interest, and 
telling me all the local news. 

But he was lamentably ignorant respecting things 
Columbian, though intelligent and inquisitive. When I 
inquired about the scenes of interest to one studying 
Columbus, he excused himself, saying he was from 
another province, and not posted regarding the affairs 
of Palos. 

" But this man, Columbus, when did he sail, Seiior ? 
and are you sure he sailed from Palos ? No ship of any 
size has left there this many a year ; the village, even, 
is half a mile from the river. 

" But I'll find thee a boy to act as a guide to Palos; 
also a burro. It makes me impatient to have such a 
man about me." 

The boy he secured must have been the surliest speci- 
men in Spain ; but the poor little fellow had lost an arm 
early in life, and I suppose that must have soured him ; 
at any rate, he probably had a hard time of it in his 
struggle for bread. 

He led up a donkey, hooked my valise on to his arm- 
stump, seized the rope attached to the donkey's nose, 
and then strode ahead without a glance at me. Don 
Pedro sent an emphatic Spanish word flying after him, 



AT THE NEW WORLD'S PORTAL. 33 

that halted him instanter ; at least long- enough to allow 
me to scramble upon the burro's back ; then he marched 
on again, pursued by the maledictions of my friend. 
" What a beast of a boy, to be sure; and to think that 
I, Pedro Val Verde, a respected householder of Moguer, 
should have been the means of putting a distinguished 
American traveler in his charge — one who has come 
all the way from America, too, just to see our little port 
of Palos. Bien^ Vaya con Dios, Sefior — God be with 
thee. You have a stick, let the burro feel the force of 
your arm." 

Palos and Moguer are at least three miles apart. The 
road between them is broad and smooth, but traversed 
by carts only in the vintage season, when the wines are 
carried to the port of Palos. There was no saddle on 
the beast I rode, and I sat astride an enormous pack of 
old bags, using my cudgel as a balancing-pole; but was 
frequently obliged to bring it down upon the donkey's 
resounding sides, at which, much pleased, apparently, 
he would wag his ears and gently amble onward. 

The boy was abstracted, and the donkey absorbed in 
meditation, so I gained little from their companionship ; 
but after an hour I sighted the hamlet. Palos, the 
ancient port whence Columbus sailed on his first v®yage 
to America, to-day consists of a few mean houses, scat- 
tered along a hillside, and one long straggling street. 
It is nearly half a mile from the river, but it was a 
port in the time of Columbus, and is called so now. 
There may be some eight hundred inhabitants, all told. 
and not one of them, that I could find, was aware that 
the hamlet had a history known to the world beyond its 



34 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

limits. Some of them had heard of Columbus; some 
remembered that it was said he had sailed hence, once 
upon a time, to a country called America ; but no one 
could tell me anything, and I must see the ciira — the 
parish priest — to know more. After an hour of wait- 
ing I found that he knew no more than the others, but 
the sacristan of the church, fortunately, was also the 
schoolmaster, and took an interest in my mission. 

He took me to the church of St. George, the veritable 
one in which Columbus read the royal commands to the 
terrified sailors of Palos, and I found it as it doubtless 
stood then : a simple church of stone, guarding the en- 
trance to the town. I photographed its eastern front, 
and also its rear, where there is a Moorish doorway 
(now walled up) draped in vines. The interior of the 
church is very plain, the chief ornament being an enor- 
mous wooden image of St. George, the patron saint of 
the church, slaying a terrible dragon. As St. George 
stood in a corner so dark that I could not obtain a. 
photograph of his cheerful countenance, the sacristan 
and his boy obligingly trundled him out into the sun- 
light, where he was visible. 

Sixty years ago, "Washington Irving saw this same 
saint in the act of slaying this same dragon, and he par- 
ticularly mentions that both had been recently repainted, 
and that the nose of the saint was as rosy-hued as the 
sunset. It is, even now, as gorgeous as ever, and the 
nose almost bright enough to guide the dragon in strik- 
ing at his tormentor in the dark. 

It was with great reluctance that I left the church 
and turned my face again toward Moguer; but the day 



AT THE NEW WORLD'S PORTAL. 35 

was nearly ended, there was no accommodation of any 
sort for a traveler at Palos, and the boy and the burro 
were anxious to be away. Don Pedro of the inn re- 
ceived me cordially, spreading a table with fruit of his 
garden and wine of his vineyard, and afterward invited 
me to come forth and view the town. He first con- 
ducted me to the church, and then to the house of the 
Pinzon family, still in possession of a descendant of 
the great Pinzon who sailed with Columbus. Over 
the doorway is their coat-of-arms. I was delighted 
to learn that the present representative of the family 
is prosperous, and holds a position in the Spanish 
navy. 

It was not my good fortune to be entertained, as Irv- 
ing was, by a descendant of the great Pinzon, though I 
should have valued that attention more highly than any 
other in Spain; for it was to the two brothers Pinzon 
that Columbus was indebted for success. When he 
came here, penniless and without authority, they were 
prosperous citizens, men of influence over their neigh- 
bors, and we all know the part they took in that first 
voyage, furnishing money, men and vessels. Even the 
royal proclamation read in the church of St. George, 
was of less avail than their brave example. Badly 
treated, they were, by Columbus and by Ferdinand, yet 
posterity will not refuse them their meed of honor. In 
truth, the deeds of the Genoese pale before their steady 
glow of sturdy independence. The needy adventurer 
whom they befriended, and who treated them so basely, 
forgetting their noble friendship after his success was 
won, has left no direct descendants; but the sturdy 



36 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

Pinzon stock still flourishes in the birthplace of its 
progenitors. 

Our next visit was to the convent church of Santa 
Clara, where Columbus and his sailors fulfilled their 
vows after their return from the first voyage. You will 
recall, perhaps, that they promised their saints that if 
they were saved from a dreadful storm that threatened, 
they would spend their first night ashore in prayer. 
And it was in this very church that they performed 
their vows; Columbus, at least, kneeling here all night 
on the cold marbles, and before the altar. 

As the church was then, it is now : with a magnificent 
altar-piece, fine statues and rich paintings. It was 
erected by the Puertocarreros, whose tombs and marble 
effigies lie in niches on either side. They were a noble 
family ; and it was a Puertocarrero, you will remember, 
who was intrusted with the first vessel sent from Mexico 
to Spain, in 15 19, bearing from New to Old Spain a 
portion of the rich treasure of Montezuma. 

The day following, returning to Palos, a sturdy don- 
key boy attended me, not the one-armed brute of the 
day before, and we made the distance merrily, halting 
at the town only for a lunch. 

As the place came into view, I drew up my donkey on 
the brow of the hill and looked long at the white-walled 
Palos, so silent before me, so lifeless, so sad. I need 
not put on paper the thoughts that possessed me as I 
gazed, nor the pictures that arose before my mental 
vision, for I am an American, and have a share in that 
common heritage left us by Columbus. Four hundred 
years only have passed since the great Genoese came 



AT THE NEW WORLD'S PORTAL. 



37 



here, to this very port of Palos, and sailed away with 
its sailor- citizens to the discovery of a continent, and 
though since then the cynosure of all eyes, little Palos 
has slumbered on, unmindful of its fame. One by one 
its prosperous men were gathered out of sight, one by 
one its houses fell to ruins, one by one its fleets were 







THE CONVENT OF LA EABIDA. 



depleted of its vessels, and to-day naught remains save 
the memory of its greatness. 

About three miles beyond Palos, passing through 
scenery unattractive and sad, some clumps of trees 
appear and a hill rises against the sky. Then, slowly 
climbing, you bring the roofs and cupolas of a lone 
white building into view, which are found to pertain to 
a convent structure of the olden style. It is rambling, 



38 IJNT THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

yet compactly inclosed within a high wall, and is ex- 
tremely picturesque. I was very, fortunate, later on, in 
securing a fine photograph of it, as clouds lay massed 
beyond, and a flock of sheep slowly grazed before it. 
And it was thus I found it, this Convent of La Rabida, 
at the gate of which Columbus halted to request refresh- 
ment for his son. How he came to such a secluded 
place as La Rabida no one has explained ; but he prob- 
ably made for the coast of Spain, thinking, perhaps, to 
obtain a vessel at Huelva, then, as now, a shipping port 
for copper ore to foreign parts. Indeed, this very spot 
is the ancient Tarshish of the Bible, and the Phoenicians 
came here more than two thousand years ago: those 
men of Tyre, who discovered a passage between the 
Pillars of Hercules. But Columbus came here, halted 
at the gate (the arched entrance at the right), and the 
prior of the convent, the good Marchena, chanced to 
see and to enter into conversation with him. Struck 
by his dignified appearance, and also by his evident 
learning, the prior invited him to tarry a while, and soon 
he had his visitor's story: of long-deferred plans, of 
wearisome waiting and crushing defeat. That very 
night he caused his mule to be saddled, and started for 
Granada, pursuing the same weary road through Palos 
and Moguer that I have traversed (only he was not 
favored by steam or stage) to the camp, perhaps two 
hundred miles away. 

Meanwhile, Columbus waited, resting in the cool cor- 
ridors, walking meditatively along the shore, and gazing 
wistfully out upon the scene from the arched and shel- 
tered jnirador. 



AT THE NEW WORLD'S PORTAL. 39 

The convent to-day is in excellent preservation, hav- 
ing been carefully restored and placed in the care of a 
faithful old soldier. I found the family in possession so 
simple, and so kindly disposed, that I craved permission 
to pass the day and night there, which they readily 




THE MIEADOE OF LA EABIDA, 

[Looking out upon the stream down which Columbus sailed from Palos to the sea.) 

granted. So, paying my donkey boy double wages, and 
sending him back to Moguer with a kind message for the 
friendly landlord, I was soon placed in control of the con- 
vent, isolate from all the world. Not even Fray Perez 
could have possessed it more completely. I wandered 
at will through its corridors, its cloisters and vacant 
refectory, rambled over the hills back and beyond the 



40 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

convent ; hills covered with artemisia and stunted pines, 
and indulged in solitary reverie to my heart's content. 

Climbing- the winding stairway to the viirador^ I had 
before me broad vistas, through the arched openings, of 
the river and the sea. Directly beneath, the hills 
sloped rapidly to the half- submerged lands of the river 
and sound. Half-way down its slope was a date-palm, 
said to have been here in the time of Columbus ; perhaps 
equally old are the gnarled and twisted fig-trees and two 
gray-green olives that keep it company. Extending 
southward, even to the mouth of the Guadalquivir, are 
the Arenas Gordas, or the great sands, that make this 
coast a solitary waste. Truly, it is a lonesome spot, 
this upon which the building is perched, and the soul 
of Columbus must have been aweary as he drew near 
the convent portal. 

The Domingo Rubio, a sluggish stream tributary to 
the Tinto, separates from Rabida a sandy island, where 
there is an ancient watch-tower and a camp of carbi- 
neers on the watch for contrabandistas. A little to the 
west the Domingo Rubio meets with, and is lost in, the 
Rio Tinto, and the two join with the Odiel and flow 
tranquilly on to the ocean, where the foaming breakers 
roar with a sound that reaches even to La Rabida. Be- 
yond their united waters again, is another sandy island, 
and another distant watch-tower, till the low coast fades 
away in the distance. Down this channel sailed, or 
floated, Columbus, bringing his boats from Palos, on 
his way to the sea. The landscape is of a dreary kind, 
flat, with distant woods, and farther on a hint of purple 
hills. Opposite, across the broad bay, lies Huelva, like 



AT THE NEW WORLD'S PORTAL. 41 

a snowdrift, white upon a tongue of land between cop- 
per-colored hills and the sea. A dreary landscape, yet 
a bright sun in its setting might make it transiently 
glorious. 

The old soldier in charge of the convent, Don Cristo- 
bal Garcia, the concerge, was evidently straitened in cir- 
cumstances, yet 
he was cheerful, 
and his hospital 
ity shone forth re 
splendently. He 
laughingly in- 
formed me that 
he rejoiced in the 
same name as 
Columbus — Cris 
t o b a 1 ; but, he 
added, he had 

IN THE CONVENT COURT. 

never done any- 
thing to make it illustrious. He and his family lived in 
a primitive and even pitiful state, at meal times gather- 
ing around a common platter ; but my own meals they 
served me on snowy linen at a table apart. There were 
six of them : the old man, his wife, a little girl named 
Isabel, some twelve years old, and three boys. Isabel, 
poor child, pattered about the stone pavement with bare 
feet, but they were pretty feet, and with little brown 
ankles neatly turned. There was another member of 
the family, evidently an intruder, a little chap clad 
solely in a short shirt, who had squint eyes and a great 
shock of bristly black hair. Don Cristobal told me that 




42 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

he was a descendant of one of the Indians brought to 
Spain from America on the first voyage; and as the 
child's face was certainly that of an Indian, I was more 
than half-inclined to believe the story. The little people 
were delighted with the peeps I gave them through my 
camera, and capered about with delight at the sight of 
the court and its flowers spread out before them in 
miniature, and nearly jumping out of their clothes at 
the inverted image of the grave old concerge standing 
on his head, exclaiming, "Mira! Mira!" and gazing at 
me with awe and wonder. 

They gave me a bed in one of the cloister-cells, the 
very one, Don Cristobal assured me, that Columbus 
occupied, and I slept well through the night. It was a 
disappointment to me that I did not dream, and receive 
a visitation from some steel-clad hidalgo, or from a 
girdled monk or two ; but of dreams I had none worth 
preserving, and at six in the morning was awakened by 
the good concerge^ who inquired if Don Federico would 
not like a little refreshment. Don Federico would, and 
well he did, for it was three or four hours before he 
received a hint of breakfast. 

The eldest boy had gone to Palos for twenty cents' 
worth of meat and two eggs, making apparent the 
poverty of my host. He did not return until ten, and 
then we had breakfast; and there were the two eggs, 
which the mistress could not have regarded more 
proudly had they been golden, for they were very 
scarce at that time in Palos, and it was waiting on a 
hen's pleasure that caused the boy's delay. He had 
been told to bring back two eggs, and if two hens had 



AT THE NEW WORLD'S PORTAL. 43 

not have happened along quite opportunely, I might 
have been waiting that boy's return to this day. 

There were meat and bread and golden wine. And 
that wine ! The product of Don Cristobal's own vine- 
yard, true vino de Palos, sweet and yet sparkling. This 
wine is of a golden color, with fine bouquet, and cele- 
brated at Seville. This rich, ocherous earth seems to 
have bestowed its fatness upon the wine-vat, for not on 
the plains of Xeres is wine produced of so rare a flavor 
as this made on the banks of the Rio Tinto. The rain 
had fallen all the forenoon and had made the convent 
cold and cheerless, so a fire was built in the fireplace 
of the ancient monks, and as it crackled and leaped 
up the huge chimney-throat we were warmed to our 
very hearts. 

Then the old soldier told me bits of his past history 
and legends of the place, while the chubby children 
gathered around, chins on their hands, stretched before 
the fire like kittens, regarding us with wide-open, 
wondering eyes. 

I said we had meat; it was not flesh of lamb or sheep, 
but of goat; and it was old, and it was tough. Don 
Cristobal remarked my desperate effort to carve it, 
vainly exerted, and observed that the market of Palos 
was never supplied with other than goat-meat, and that 
he doubted not that it was very old. 

Now Don Cristobal had a way of ascribing everj^thing 
ancient to the time of Columbus. 

" Is this old? " I would inquire. And he would re- 
ply, " Si Sefior, es tienipo de Colon: " " Yes, sir, surely, 
of the time of Columbus. " 



44 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

So I said, pointing to the goat-meat, " This is very 
old, is it not? " " Yes, sir," he replied; " I think so." 
"Very, very old?" "Yes, sir." "Well, then, do 
yon think it is of the time of Columbus? " 

The old man was slow at digesting this query at first, 
but when he did he nearly exploded with laughter, and 
hobbled outside to tell the Americano's joke to some 
old cronies who were sunning theinselves at the door. 

After the rain had ceased, and while the sun was 
struggling fiercely with the clouds, we ate our dinner in 
the corridor, which ran around a court, or patio ^ open to 
the sky. This court was filled with flowers, vines crept 
up the pillars, figs and oranges had possessed them- 
selves of space enough for luxuriant growth, and al- 
together it was an attractive spot. From this court 
opened out many cloisters, but there was another, 
farther in, where the chamber-cells of the monks were 
very numerous. Vacant now, with doors ajar, and with 
no one to inhale the fragrance of oranges and roses in 
this inner court. Off at one side is the chapel where it 
is said Columbus knelt in prayer, and on the opposite 
side a passage leads to the refectory, the stone benches 
on which the good monks sat empty and chill. 

Climbing a narrow stairway, you come to a corner 
room overlooking the Rio Tinto, a large square room, 
with floor of earthen tiles and ceiling of cedar, with 
dark beams overhead. This is the Columbus Room, 
where the great Admiral, the prior and the learned 
doctor held the famous consultation which resulted in 
the monk's intercession with Isabella. Many a painting 
has represented this historic scene, perhaps none more 




'.'I 



AT THE NEW WORLD'S PORTAL. 47 

faithfully than the one hung in the room itself. An 
immense table, old but sturdy still, and around which 
the great men are said to have gathered, occupies the 
center of the room, and on it is the tintero^ or inkstand, 
said to have been used by them. Around the wall are 
hung several excellent pictures; one representing the 
discovery of land, one showing Columbus at the convent 
gate, another the consultation, the embarkation at Palos, 
the publication of the king's commands in the church, 
and the final departure from La Rabida. 

I had often thought that to be a monk, cloistered in 
cool corridors, would be an ambition it were well to 
gratify, and I must confess to a feeling of pity for the 
poor frailes who were turned loose from these quiet 
retreats and set adrift on an unfeeling world. I wonder 
if they enjoyed, as I did, the seclusion of the place and 
the sunset view from the mirador? In pleasant weather, 
when the hot sun shines, it must be supremely attract- 
ive, to one sitting in the shade and looking forth upon 
the sea. Drowsy insects hum outside, the half-sup- 
pressed noises of maritime life float in on the breeze, 
and lively swallows fly in and out, twittering to one 
another as they seek their nests. Ah ! pleasant mira- 
dor^ overlooking the historic Rio Tinto and the sea! 
The view afforded here comprises the scenes attendant 
upon the momentous departure; right before us, on 
the banks of the Domingo Rubio, it was, that Columbus 
careened his vessels and took aboard his stores, just 
before setting sail ; somewhere near the mole he took 
his final farewell of the good prior, the last, best friend 
he had in Spain; and beyond the sand-spits glimmer 



48 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

the breakers on the Bar of Saltes. Down the stream, 
beyond the Tinto, glide lateen sails toward the bar the 
sailors crossed in 1492. 

Don Cristobal went down to engage passage for me 
in a mystick, or little sloop, that was lading with ballast 
at the river bank, and soon I followed him to the mole, 
where a carabinero rowed me across the inlet. Once 
there, I found that the mystick would not leave till 
night; but the men were cheerful and chatty, and so I 
staid a while. It was on or near this very spot that 
Columbus cleared for his voyage; and what thoughts 
filled my mind as I tarried here ! 

But not a thought had the men for aught save their 
sand, which they would take to Huelva and sell for 
ballast. If I would wait, I was welcome to a passage; 
but they thought that by crossing the sands I could hail 
a fisherman in the main channel as he came in from 
sea. The carabinero thought so, too, and took me to 
an ancient tower where his companions were, two of 
whom rowed me in a boat to mid-channel, where I had 
the good luck to catch a fisherman bound for Huelva. 
He took me willingly, and we sailed away with a spank- 
ing breeze, arriving there in half an hour. Two men 
and a boy comprised the crew, and an immense fish the 
catch ; and as we drew near the quay a boy drove down 
a mule-cart into the water, backed it up to the boat, and 
loaded us all into it, cargo and crew. Once on shore, 
a little urchin, with wide-extended mouth, seized my 
camera and valise and led the way to the railway station, 
where I spent the forty minutes till train-time in gazing 
wistfully at Palos and La Rabida. 




ALABASTEK TOMB AT BUKGOS. 



(Alabaster Tomb in the Cartuja, Convent of Miraflores, in Burgos, the high, altar of which 
convent church was gilded with the first gold brought from America by Columbus.) 



AT THE NEW WORLD'S PORTAL. 



51 



The convent lay against a bank of clouds, shining out 
like silver; Palos also and Moguer gleaming white 
against the hills. Two leagues away lay the sea ; and 
I had just ploughed the channel crossed by the world- 
seeking caravels four hundred years ago. And so I 
left this historic triad of towns, which had evoked for 
me so many memories of the great century that joined 
the Old World with the New, left them shining 
against the barren hills, as they have shone in memory 
ever since. 




CPOSS AT LA EABTDA. 



III. 



IN GUANAHANI WITH COLUMBUS. 



1 




W 



'E cannot 
but re- 
gard the first 
voyage of Co- 
Itinibus as a 
combination 
of favorable 
and fortunate 
events; for, 
barring a slight 
accident to the 
Pijita, nothing 
occurred to 
baffle his plans 
until the first 
land was in 
sight. The 
final departure 
may be said 
to have been taken from Gomera in the Canary Islands, 
and the last sight of land was off the Island of Ferro. 









CROSSING THK SARGASSO SEA. 

{So named by the Spanish.) 



IN GUANAHANI WITH COLUMBUS. 53 

Two days after land was lost to sight, or on the 
eleventh of September, a floating mast was seen, and 
on the thirteenth, the most important discovery was 
made by Columbus. We may say, quoting a distin- 
guished author, that Columbus made several discoveries 
before he discovered land. The first of these was the 
variation of the compass, the second the Sargasso Sea 
and the third the trade-winds of the tropics. 

The variation of the magnetic needle of course dis- 
turbed him greatly ; but he had the wisdom to keep his 
discovery to himself, until the change became so great 
that the pilots noticed it ; then he gave them a plausible 
explanation. 

It was about the first of October that they approached 
the region of the trade-winds, and noticed the peculiari- 
ties of that vast weedy expanse known as the Sargasso 
Sea. This seaweed, found floating on the surface of 
the ocean, bears globules like small grapes in shape. 
The Spanish sailors, fancying a resemblance between 
them and the grape grown in Portugal, called the sea- 
plant the sargasso, and the name was also given to that 
portion of the ocean where the weed is found. 

We know that his astronomical knowledge was imper- 
fect, and the nautical instruments very crude. He had 
a compass, and a rude instrument called the astrolabe, 
by which he determined his latitude; but he could only 
guess at his longitude, and he measured time by an 
hour-glass. " It has been said that he probably had no 
means for accurately calculating the speed of his ves- 
sels, as there is no mention of the log-and-line before 
15 19; and as to the telescope, it was first used in the 



54 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

year 1610. Having such a slight equipment, the sailors 
of that day, of course, were very timid about venturing 
far from land. The task that Columbus set himself was 
simply to go to the Canary Islands, in about latitude 
twenty-eight degrees north, and sail due west until he 
struck land." He was diverted from his course by the 
advice of the pilots and by the flight of birds to the 
southward, otherwise he might have landed on the coast 
of Florida, near the Indian River. 

"When I think," said a celebrated writer, "of Co- 
lumbus in his little bark, his only instruments an imper- 
fect compass and a rude astrolabe, sailing forth upon an 
unknown sea, I must award to him the credit of being 
the boldest seaman that ever sailed the salt ocean." 

After they had been a month at sea, the pilots reck- 
oned they had sailed about five hundred and eighty 
leagues west of the Canaries ; but by the true, though 
suppressed, figures of Columbus, they had made really 
over seven hundred leagues. It was about that time, or 
October 10, that the crew became mutinous; but later, 
signs of land, such as a branch with berries, and a 
piece of carved wood, changed gloom to hope, and strict 
watch was kept throughout the night. They were then 
on the verge of the great discovery. All seemed to 
have felt that some great event was pending; and on 
the night of October 11, Columbus claimed to have seen 
a wavering light. The next day, early in the morning, 
or that is about two o'clock of October 12, land was 
first sighted by a sailor on the Pinta. A landing was 
made the same day, and possession taken in the name of 
the Spanish sovereigns. 



54 

ye 
of 
fa; 
sii 
tw 
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of 

lui 
fee 
un 
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OIK 

lea 
suj 

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Oc 

sig 

pie 

wa 

on 

ha-^ 

the 

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firs 

ma 

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•-i^O 



IN GUANAHANI WITH COLUMBUS. 55 

All these events, of course, we are familiar with in 
the works of many authors, notably in the history by 
Washington Irving, who first made the English-speak- 
ing world acquainted with the voyages of Columbus. 
But, although it is only four hundred years since these 
events took place, yet there is a great difference of 
opinion as to the island which may claim to have been 
the first land sighted on that memorable date, October 

12, 1492. 

One thing is certain: the first landfall of Columbus 
was an island in the Bahamas, although opinions vary 
as to which one, claimants having arisen for several 
others besides those mentioned. But although the islands 
claimed extend over a distance of some three hundred 
miles, yet, we may be justified in going a little farther, 
and saying that not only was the first island one of the 
Bahama group, but situate somewhere about midway in 
the chain. Since the time of Irving and Humboldt, 
several writers of distinction have given attention to 
this question, and though not all coming to the same 
conclusions, most of them agree upon Watling's Island, 
as the place where the Europeans first set foot upon 
soil of the New World. 

Unfortunately for investigators, the journal of Colum- 
bus, which, as he informed the queen, at the setting out 
of the voyage, he should write day by day, has disap- 
peared, and we have only a portion of it, alleged d 
have been transcribed by a Spanish historian. Las 
Casas. And again, it is unfortunate that this tran- 
scription has apparently many discrepancies. 

Since, however, the greater number of writers recog- 



56 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

nized as authorities are in favor of Watling's Island, it 
will be as well to grant that one the honor. 

Whichever island it may have been, I myself can 
claim that I have seen it, as I have traversed the entire 
chain, from Turk's to Cat, and have studied them all 
carefully, with a view to giving an opinion on this vexed 
question. Years ago, it was my good fortune to bisect 
the group on my way to the south coast of Cuba, when 
I saw this island rising like a cloud, or rather a blue 
mound, above the horizon. But it was not until July, 
1892, that I had the opportunity for visiting it. Being 
then in the West Indies as Commissioner for the World's 
Columbian Exposition, I received orders from the exec- 
utives to investigate this question of the Landfall, and 
visit the islands in person. 

I was then in Haiti, the Black Republic, and the first 
opportunity did not occur until a month after receiving 
my commands. Leaving the port of Cape Haitien early 
one morning on a steamer of the Clyde Line, called the 
Ozama^ in a few hours we sighted the Island of Tortuga. 
The day before, from another port on the Haitian 
coast, we had scanned the leeward shore of this famous 
haunt of the buccaneers in times gone by, and now were 
on the bleak, iron-bound coast of the inward side. 

Finally, the turtle-back Tortuga faded out of sight, 
and the next land, or rather indication of land, was the 
southwest point of Inagua, merely a shadowy semb- 
lance of terra firvia, emphasized a few hours later by 
the flashing out of its revolving light from a high white 
tower. Its capital, Matthewstown, may be a prosaic 
place enough in broad daylight, but by the glamor of a 



IN GUANAHANI WITH COLUMBUS. 57 

summer's night it was transformed into a thing of ex- 
ceeding beauty, as we lay a mile or so off shore, await- 
ing a little freight of Sisal hemp, mahogany logs that 
had floated over from Santo Domingo, in the last great 
storm, and some bags of smuggled coffee. 

It had been my intention to land here, and take a 
chance vessel (should by good luck any such occur) for 
Watling's, in the center of the Bahama chain; but the 
agents of the steamer advised me not to risk it, as noth- 
ing promised for that island within a month. They 
assured me I would stand a better chance from Fortune 
Island, and if I could only reach it, be a hundred miles 
nearer my desired destination. As the steamer never 
touched at Fortune, and indeed at none of the Bahamas 
except occasionally, I felt myself in a predicament until 
gallant Capt. Rockwell, the master of the Ozaina, came 
to my assistance, and promised that if I would take 
the chances he would drop me off the island, if the 
people there ashore would answer his signals and send 
out a boat. 

Next morning at daylight we passed the light of Cas- 
tle Island, and at ten o'clock were abreast the flashing 
surf of Long Cay, and could see the little settlement 
there that formed the only one on Fortune Island. Sig- 
nals were set: "Passengers aboard; send off a boat," 
and shortly after we could &ee a movement on the beach 
about a mile away, where a boat was being launched. 
In a little while it came alongside, our engines having 
stopped, and after an interchange of salutations my 
luggage was quickly transferred to the boat below, and 
I left the comfortable Osama and launched out into 



58 



IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 



another unknown adventure. The steamer steered off, 
my friends waved me a last farewell, and by the 
time we reached the beach objects on board were 
indistinguishable. 

I found myself a stranger in a strange land, but for- 
tunately had my usual good luck, and obtained board 
and lodging at a house near the beach. Fortune Island, 

or Long Cay, 
is about eight 
miles in length 
and a mile or 
so in breadth, 
some eight hun- 
dred acres in 
area, with a 
population of 
seven hundred 
people, mostly 
black and col- 
ored. The 
chief production of the island is salt, which is raked 
out of the vast shallow salt ponds formed just over 
the sand-banks behind the reefs. The process of salt 
gathering is a primitive one; the ponds are divided 
into sections containing salt in various stages of crystal- 
lization, and the water is sometimes pumped from one 
to the other by means of a curious windmill. The great 
heaps of salt, containing many thousands bushels, are 
pyramidal in shape, white as snow, and glisten like 
silver in the sun. Formerly this island was a great 
rendezvous for the wreckers, and in yet earlier times 





A SALT HEAP OX FORTUNE ISLAND. 



IN GUANAHANl WITH COLUMBUS. 59 

perhaps for the buccaneers ; but latterly their occupa- 
tion has departed, owing to the erection of lighthouses 
and the substitution of steamers for the principal traffic 
to and through the islands instead of sailing vessels. 

Now and then a steamer touches here going from 
New York to Jamaica and Central America, picks up a 
crew of laborers for the voyage, and drops them again 
at their homes on its return. It is a barren island as 
compared with the islands of the West Indies proper ; 
and yet it is not unattractive, with its white sand 
beaches, its glistening salt heaps, and its half-tropical 
vegetation. 

It was thought that I could readily get a vessel here 
to take me to Watling's Island, but it will show you how 
infrequently these islands are visited, even by coasting 
craft, when I tell you that it was nine days before I 
could secure a boat to take me over, a distance of only 
one hundred miles. Even then, although that day 
there happened four or five craft in port, the master of 
the dirty little " turtler " asked six pounds for a run_ 
of merely a night. 

The old wrecker instinct is still strong in the resi- 
dents of these coral islands, and when they get hold of 
a stranger they make him pay for long months of 
deprivation. This was well illustrated by the treat- 
ment I myself received at the hands of the man who» 
had taken me from the steamer. He gave me accom- 
modation in a large vacant house he had on the beach, 
but, although he is the accredited Commercial Agent of 
our Government at Fortune Island, and at least should 
have helped on my exploration, coming to him as I did, 



60 



IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 



with letters from the Department of State, yet he did 
nothing for which I did not pay him the highest value. 
More than this ; knowing well the urgent nature of my 
mission, he yet kept me practically a prisoner on For- 
tune, when he could easily have sent me over to Wat- 
ling's, only one hundred miles away. For, lying at 
anchor inside the reef, during all my stay, was his fast 
schooner, the Jane, and a crew was at hand only too 
eager to earn a few dollars by a run. To be sure he did 




WINDMILL FOR PUJrpiXG SALT WATEK. 
{Fortune Island.) 

offer to take me over at a most preposterous price — one 
hundred dollars — for the night's run, but that, as he 
well knew, was out of the question. Days wore away 
without the desired sail appearing ; day by day I would 
pace the beach and climb the highest elevation, scan- 
ning vainly the horizon for a sign of rescuing sail in 
sight. To pass the time I made a boat excursion to 
Crooked Island, and thereby added to my increasing 
store of information respecting the conjectural isles first 



IN GUANAHANI WITH COLUMBUS. 61 

found by Columbus; for, in many respects, this one 
answers to the description given in his journal. 

It was the Fourth of July when I arrived at Fortune, 
but the heat, I afterward learned, was not so oppressive 
as it was at the same time in our Northern States. The 
sun's rays may have been stronger, but all day long a 
refreshing breeze was blowing, which at night increased 
to a gale, and the only inconvenience during the day 
was from the terrific glare on the snow-white sands of 
the shore, and the unchanging blue of the sky. Soli- 
tude here reigned supreme, the few inhabitants being 
either within doors, at work on the salt pans, or with 
the steamers on distant coasts. The beauty of the 
moonlight on the pearly sands was something surpass- 
ing; but I had it all to myself, and finally tired of 
solitary strolls. My most refreshing diversion was sea- 
bathing, which I indulged in every morning before the 
sun got high, reveling to my heart's content in the 
sparkling brine, and under the shadow of the great 
black rocks stretching myself out in quiet enjoyment. 
But the delightful sense of security was one day rudely 
dispelled when, just as I was emerging from the water, 
I saw a shapeless something prowling warily among 
the coral ledges — a great gray ghost of a thing, which 
finally came near enough for me to see it was a shark. 
After that, when I went for a sea-dip, I took along a 
small boy to stand watch while I sported in the surf. 
The islanders had told me that no sharks ever came 
within the barrier-reefs of coral, which cropped out 
from some twenty yards to the distance of a quarter of 
a mile away; but the very day I saw the first shark 



62 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

two others came tip directly in front of the house, im- 
mense fellows, each one over ten feet in length. Some 
fishermen had left fish-garbage on the sand, and in the 
death-like quiet of the burning noon these monsters 
stole boldly in, one after the other, and rolled over quite 
on the beach, their gray bodies entirely out of water in 
their efforts to snatch the refuse. This they repeated 
several times, even after the alarm was given and the 
people came flocking to the beach, and for several days 
after they followed the fishermen in from the sea. It 
is, even amongst the dwellers in these islands, a mooted 
question whether sharks will attack and kill a human 
being in water near the shore, and it is universally 
acknowledged that they will not snap at a black man if 
there is a white one near at the same time. Unlike 
the alligator, which likes nothing so well as a succulent 
negro, unless it may be a juicy porker, the discriminat- 
ing shark always prefers white meat to dark ; but what- 
ever the fish's predilection, I for one shall give him as 
wide a berth as possible in his native element. 

The name of the settlement at Long Cay, as the port 
of Fortune is locally called, is Albert's Town, a ram- 
bling collection of huts and houses, with a population 
composed mainly of negroes, there being but one per- 
son of undoubted white lineage in the place. 

This was the Collector and Resident Justice, a very 
jolly Irishman, with a brogue as rich as the island itself 
is poor ; a man extremely well-informed, with whom it 
was my delight to spend much of my spare time. He 
lived in a little house among the palms, all alone except 
for a small black boy whom he had in a way adopted. 



IN GUANAHANI WITH COLUMBUS. 63 

having found him, some years before, abandoned by his 
mother in a hut in a lonely place. Wherever the Col- 
lector went, little Joe went too, and the petting he got 
made him the envy of all the boys of the village. He 
was, I fancy, the only one of his kind on that island in 
danger of being spoiled by petting, and I have in mind 
two others particularly ill-treated. They were in the 
employ of my host, and the lashings he gave them were 
about his only diversion. Poor little chaps ! Without 
the slightest provocation their master would lash them 
unmercifully with a stinging whip, and the sight of 
him set them to trembling so it was no wonder that 
they let things fall occasionally and broke the dishes. 
They were both of them orphans, and this brute had 
them entirely at his mercy. I often told him that it 
seemed to me burden enough for one to be black, and 
that he ought not to add to their misery. One would 
have thought that having himself a trace of black blood 
in his veins, he would have been more compassionate 
to those of his race ; but it is strange, though true, that 
these are the ones who treat the negro worst. Once 
having risen in the world, they forget and despise their 
parents, and are harsh to their neighbors. 

Although I regretted the loss of time in that island, 
yet I am thankful that I was not indebted to this man 
for any favors, and that he did nothing for which he was 
not fully compensated. 

At last came the day of deliverance ; the long-watched- 
for sails came in, three in one day, and in one of these 
unwashed " turtlers " I engaged a passage to the 
island of my desires. Captain and crew were black, 



64 



IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 



and they lived on the windward coast of Crooked Island.. 
We left Long Cay at dark, and in a few hours we were 
off the flashing light on Bird Rock, whence we took our 
departure for Watling's, and at daylight next morning 
I saw a long low line of land against 
the sky. It was the island we were 
seeking. But the wind failed us for 
a while, and it was full noon before 
we could reach the roadstead of 
Riding-Rocks and the shelter of the 
island's only settlement of Cockburn 
Town. Having my consular flag 
with me, I had the captain hoist it, 
and we entered the harbor with the 
stars and stripes displayed in all their 
glory. This unexpected arrival at 
this quiet port, flying a flag that 
rarely was seen here, threw all the 
town into consternation; but no ob- 
jection was offered to my landing, as 
the boat was mine for the time being, having been 
chartered by me, and I was entitled to fly the flag I 
liked best, of course. This was the view taken also by 
the Collector, a handsome Englishman, a retired officer 
of Her Majesty's navy, who was serving in this retired 
spot temporarily, in order to secure a "good-service" 
pension. He welcomed me most cordially, for strangers 
and news were equally scarce, and placed his s-ervices 
at my commands. 

My arrival was most opportune, for "the whole island 
was suffering from a drought, and many people were on 




MY " TURTLEE." 



IN GUANAHANI WITH COLUMBUS. 05 

the point of starvation. Fortunately, I had learned of 
their condition before leaving Fortune, and had brought 
a supply of provisions sufficient for a month. It proved 
in such deinand that I had hardly any remaining at the 
end of the week. There was absolutely nothing to be 
had, not even milk or eggs, those last resorts of these 
needy people. 

I had been recommended to the Resident Justice of 
the island. Captain Maxwell Nairn, as one who would 
attend to my wants; but recent and dangerous illness 
had rendered him unable to extend me the hospitality 
he would surely otherwise have done, and I could not 
obtain even a room in which to sleep. He and his 
family, however, were ufgent in their endeavors to find 
me quarters, and finally secured a room in the thatched 
hut of an old black woman, who agreed to cook my 
meals. The stone walls of the apartment were white 
and clean, and the thatch overhead was neatly fastened 
to the rafters, while the old lady's cooking was at least 
endurable. Captain Nairn's was the only white family 
on the island, the other six hundred inhabitants being 
black and colored. The town consisted of a few score 
huts and houses, an English church, and a Baptist 
chapel. One road ran across to a central lagoon, a mile 
away, and a trail around the island ; but the great high- 
way is the ocean, their conveyances, boats and canoes. 
Watling's Island is egg-shaped ; it is about twelve miles 
long, and from five to seven miles broad, with great 
salt-water lagoons in the center, and entirely surrounded 
with dangerous reefs. Once, it is believed, the coral 
rock, of which it is entirely composed, supported a 



66 



IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 



fertile soil, but at present the rock is entirely denuded, 
and the only soil is found in pockets and depressions in 
the surface. 

A Bahama farm, in fact, whether it be found in Nas- 
sau or Turk's Island, is always a surprise to one from 
the American States, because of its poverty. When the 
scant vegetation that covers the coral rock is removed, 




LOOKING ACROSS THE LAGOONS ON WATLING'S ISLAND. 

(" One road ran across to the central lagoon") 

there remains only the white, glistening rock itself, 
gleaming out as bare and as devoid of plant life as a 
marble monument. 

But these naked rocks, so pitifully suggestive of pov- 
erty, the natives regard with affectionate interest and 
speak of them as their "farms." The great drought 
of the past two years had deprived the farms of even 
the scant moisture of ordinary years, and induced a 
general failure of crops throughout the island. 



IN GUANAHANI WITH COLUMBUS. 67 

Although the island lies just on the verge of the 
Tropics, in latitude twenty-four, yet its vegetation is by 
no means tropical in character, conveying rather a hint 
of nearness to the mid-zone than actual fertility. I 
am writing of the vegetation presumably natural to the 
island, as seen in the woods and in the fields, and not 
of the cultivated plants ; for, indeed, all the fruits and 
vegetables of the Tropics can be raised here. 

But we no longer note the luxuriant vegetation de- 
scribed by Columbus, who speaks of the orchards of 
trees, and of great forest giants, such as the present 
day does not produce. All the vegetal covering is 
now of the second growth, though there are evidences 
of the forest primeval in old stumps, long submerged, 
that still exist, showing that Columbus was probably 
correct in his descriptions. 

It was my desire to examine every evidence that 
should help to establish the character of the people resi- 
dent here at the coming of the Spaniards, and bring to 
light all the existing proofs of their residence; hence I 
devoted all my time to that end. The very morning 
after my arrival, the Collector accompanied me on a 
short exploring trip across the lagoon, where there was 
said to be a cave that had never been explored. 

He placed the entire police force at my disposal, said 
police "force" consisting of one man, who, with his 
two sons, managed our boat and carried us over the 
shallow places in the lagoon. There were many shal- 
low places, and also a small canal, so that their labor 
as carriers was somewhat arduous ; yet the police force 
was equal to the demands upon him, and, all told, he 



68 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

" backed " the Collector and myself from the boat to the 
shore, and vice versa, eight times that day, and without 
apparent fatigue. As the Collector was a very large 
man, weighing at least two hundred pounds, this per- 
formance was very creditable to the "force." 

After great difficulty, mainly experienced in cutting 
our way through the thorny and matted growth that 
everywhere covers the surface in all the Bahamas, we 
reached the cave in which tradition averred the ancient 
Indians used to dwell. It was merely a large opening 
in the limestone, forming a room of goodly proportions, 
the roof perforated in many places, and the floor cov- 
ered with bat guano. It had not been investigated, the 
islanders told us, but we found nothing to reward our 
search, and so, late in the afternoon, we returned to the 
lagoon and the town. 

The heat had been so intense that day, that the next 
I was unable to leave my hut, but the day after I went 
on the real exploring trip of the voyage, across the 
lagoon and up its entire length, to the north end of 
the island, where lies the conjectural landing-place of 
Columbus. 

I had with me the two sons of the policeman, who 
ably managed the boat, and by noon we were at the 
head of the lagoon, where we left the craft in the mud, 
and trudged over land, or rather rock, to the lighthouse, 
which rose before us a mile or so away. Arriving there, 
heated and exhausted, I received a warm welcome from 
the head keeper, who placed a comfortable house at my 
service, and took me to the top of the tower for the 
view. Built as it is, upon the highest elevation in the 



IN GUANAHANI WITH COLUMBUS. 



69 



island, this tower commanded the surrounding country 
and the sea adjacent, the whole of Watling's being visi- 
ble, shaped like a pear, with its stem to the south. 

There is little doubt in my mind that I was then look- 
ing upon the very spot at which Columbus landed just 




THE LANDING-PLACE OF COLUMBUS. 

(Watling's Iskmd.) 

four hundred years before. The reefs off shore threw 
up their sheets of foam as at the time of the discovery: 
the bright lagoons in the center of the island lay directly 
at my feet ; the low hills scarce rising above the general 
level, the green trees, the sparkling beaches — all were 
spread before me, and the prospect was pleasing and 
beautiful in the extreme. Half a mile distant from the 



YO IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

tower stretched a long continuo^is beach of silver sands 
terminated by promonotories, some two miles apart, 
breasting which the water is calm as in a pond, though 
broken by innumerable jagged reefs of coral. Beyond 
this calm space of -water that encircles the island all 
around, lies a chain of barrier-reefs, that prevent the 
tumultuous waves from reaching to the shore, and where 
all is quiet and secure. 

Bordering this beach, along its entire length, is a low 
growth of sea-grapes, dwarf palmetto, and sweet shrubs, 
just such as one may see on the southern coast of 
Florida. Scattered over its silvery surface are shells 
of every hue, and innumerable sprays of the Sargasso 
weed, such as the first sailors saw, coming here in 1492. 
Sea-bird* hover over it, fleecy clouds fleck it with their 
shadows; but, other than the distant murmur of the 
breakers, no sound disturbs the eternal silence here. 

It was at the southeast extremity of this beach, where 
a jutting promontory of honey-combed coral rock runs 
out toward the barrier-reefs, that we assume the first 
landing took place, in a beautiful bay, with an open en- 
trance from the ocean. On the beach, the fierce sun 
beats relentlessly, but there are deep hollows in the 
rock, where, in the morning, we can find shelter from 
the heat; and, availing ourselves of one of these cool 
retreats, let us rest a while, and read what Columbus 
wrote respecting his landing on the sands before us. 

Says that quaint old chronicler, Herrera: " It pleased 
God in his mercy, at the time when Don Christopher 
Columbus could no longer withstand so much mutter- 
ing, contradiction and contempt, that on Thursday, the 



IN GUANAHANI WITH COLUMBUS. 71 

eleventh of October, of the aforesaid year, 1492, in the 
evening, he received some comfort by the tokens they 
perceived of their being near the land." 

And the following, from the journal of the Admiral : 
' ' Two hours after midnight the land appeared, about 
two leagues off. They lowered all the sails, and lay to 
until Friday, when they reached a small island of the 
Lucayos, called Guanahani by the natives. They soon 
saw people naked ; and the Admiral went on shore in 
the armed boat, also Martin Alonzo and Vincente 
Yanez Pinzon, commanders of the Pmta and Nifia. 
The Admiral took the royal standard, and the two 
captains the two banners of the Green Cross, hav- 
ing an ' F ' and a ' Y ' at each arm of the cross, sur- 
mounted by its crown. As soon as they landed, they 
saw trees of a brilliant green, abundance of water, and 
fruits of various kinds. The Admiral called the two 
captains and the rest, as well as the notary of the fleet, 
to certify that he, in presence of them all, took posses- 
sion of said island for the king and queen, his masters. 
Soon after a large crowd of natives congregated there. 
And what follows are the Admiral's own words, in his 
book on the first voyage and discovery of these Indies. 
' I presented some of these people with red caps and 
strings of beads, and other trifles, by which we have got 
a wonderful hold on their affections. They afterward 
came to the boats of the vessels, swimming, bringing us 
parrots, cotton thread in balls, and such trifles, which 
they bartered for glass beads and little bells. All of 
them go about naked as they came into the world, 
their forms are graceful, their features good, their 



72 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

hair as coarse as that of a horse's tail, cut short in 
front and worn long behind. They are dark, like the 
Canary Islanders, and paint themselves in various col- 
ors. They do not carry arms, and have no knowledge 
of them, for when I showed them the swords, they took 
them by the edges, and through ignorance cut them- 
selves. They have no iron, their spears consisting of 
staffs tipped with a fish's tooth and other things. . . . 
At dawn, of Saturday, October 13, many of the men 
came to the ships in canoes made out of the trunks of 
trees, each of one piece and wonderfully built, som.e 
containing forty men, and others but a single one. 
They paddle with a peel like that of a baker, and make 
great speed, and if a canoe capsizes, all swim about and 
bail out the water with calabashes. I examined them 
closely, to ascertain if there was any gold, noticing that 
some of them wore small pieces in their noses, and by 
signs I was able to understand that by going to the 
sou'-h, or going around the island to the southward, I 
would find a king who had large gold vessels, and also 
gold in abundance. At this moment it is dark, and all 
have gone ashore in their canoes. I have determined to 
lose no time, . . . but to wait till to-morrow even- 
ing, and then sail for the southwest, ... . to try if 
I can find the Island of Cipango. ' " 

To this first land of the first voyage, Columbus gave 
the name San Salvador. By the Indians it was called 
Guanahani. By the "Indians," I say, for thus were 
termed these people found in possession, and who were 
here for the first time seen by Europeans. In the first 
day of their stay on shore, the Spaniards had added sev- 



IN GUANAHANI WITH COLUMBUS. 78 

eral new things to their discoveries : to the discovery of 
the variation of the compass, the Trades, the Sargasso 
Sea and weed, they now added the new people termed 
by their commander "Indians," the craft called by 
the Indians themselves canoes {canoas), new species of 
parrots, implements of bone and stone, and, later on, 
hammocks. 

We would like to know what kind of people these 
were, who welcomed the first Europeans to America, 
and if any of their kind exist to-day. What they were 
we have seen ; brown and bare, shapely, athletic, doing 
no harm, but gentle and loving. "I swear to Your 
Majesties, " wrote Columbus, ' ' there are no better people 
on earth; they are gentle, and without knowing what 
evil is, neither killing nor stealing." 

And yet, what was their fate ? We know, and it is 
true, that their lovable qualities availed them not, but 
rather hastened their extinction. That very year, in 
the closing decade of the fifteenth century, "was begun 
that historical tapestry, woven by the Spanish artisan- 
conquerors in the loom of the New World, the warp 
whereof was blood and tears, the woof the sighs and 
groans of a dying people. " 

One cannot but wonder why it was. We may find 
the key-note of the acts of Columbus in a quaint ex- 
pression regarding him by Bernal Diaz, one of the 
conquerors who followed him: "He took his life in 
his hand that he might give light to them who sit in 
darkness, and satisfy the thirst for gold which all men 
feel." This thirst for gold was overpowering, it con- 
trolled all his actions, and caused him to inaugurate a 



74 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

system of slavery that eventually caused the extmction 
of all the Indians of the West Indies. Yes; it is a 
melancholy truth that of all the aborigines discovered 
by Columbus, in the Bahamas, Cuba and the larger 
islands, not a descendant lives to-day. In fact, hardly 
one remained alive fifty years after the discovery. 

In the year 1508, Haiti having been depopulated of 
its Indians, the cruel Spaniards came to the Bahamas 
and deported the Lucayans to wear their lives away 
in the mines. They enticed them aboard their ves- 
sels under pretext of taking them to see their friends 
who had died. " For it is certain," says the historian 
Herrera, "that all the Indian nations believe in the 
immortality of the soul, and that when the body was 
dead the spirit- went to certain places of delight." By 
these allurements above forty thousand were trans- 
ported, never to return ; and a few years later the islands, 
found teeming with inhabitants, were deserted and soli- 
tary. In Cuba were found other Indians, but a little 
better supplied with' articles of adornment and subsist- 
ence, who had hammocks {Jiainacas)^ made fire by rub- 
bing together two pieces of wood, raised maize, or Indian 
corn, and spun cotton, which grew everywhere in their 
fields. The only domesticated quadruped was found in 
Cuba, the iitia or dumb dog ; while in the Bahamas the 
people had domesticated only the parrot, from the wild 
life around them. 

Having been so long extinct, let us say for three hun- 
dred years at least, little remains from which we may re- 
construct their lives as led at the period of discovery. 
What little there is, I have seen it all, and will describe 



IN GUANAHANI WITH COLUMBUS. 



75 



it. From the disjecta membra found at intervals in 
various places, we will try to evolve the Indian of the 
fifteenth century. In the first place, we have bones and 
skeletons, particularly crania, which undoubtedly per- 
tained to the Lucayan, or Ceboyan, as he has been 
called. These have mostly been found in caves, and 
generally be- 
neath the cave 
earth, or bat 
guano; and 
not one island 
alone has pro- 
duced them, 
but many, 
throughout 
the Bahamas. 
I myself se- 
cured two, for 
exhibition at 

the Exposition, which illustrate the peculiar features of 
the Lucayan cranium. These have been described by 
Prof. W. K. Brooks, of the Johns Hopkins University, 
who says : 

"The skulls are extremely broad in proportion to 
their length, and are among the most brachycephalic 
(round-headed), of all human skulls, the greatest breadth 
being more than nine tenths of the greatest length. The 
brain was large, and the capacity of the cranium is 
about equal to that of an average Caucasian skull. The 
Ceboyans flattened their heads artificially in infancy, so 
that the vertical part of the forehead is completely 




SKULL OF BAHABIA INDIAN. 



76 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

obliterated in all adult skulls, and the head slopes back- 
ward immediately above the eyes. " * 

When I was in Cuba, in 189 1, I saw and photographed, 
in the rooms of the Royal Academy, a couple of Indian 
skulls imbedded in lime-rock that had been found in a 
cave at Cape Maysi, the eastern point of Cuba. 

Their origin and their antiquity are undoubted, al- 
though, knowing, as we do, the rapidity of stalagmitic 
formation in limestone caves, we need not argue the 
extreme antiquity their surroundings might, at first 
glance, imply. Again, in Santo Domingo I found two 
crania, f in possession of a learned physician of Puerto 
Plata, which were undoubtedly of the native Ciguyans — 
the Indians living here at the arrival of Columbus. 

The keeper of the Watling's Island light, Captain 
Thompson, kindly procured me trusty men for my in- 
vestigation, and himself guided me to the nearest cave 
in which human bones had been found. It is only in 
the caves and hollows in the rocks that we now find 
human bones and skeletons; the deposition of Xh.Q humus 
being so scanty that nothing extraneous deposited there 
has been preserved. To the caves, then, we went, for 
those of Watling's Island had already yielded valuable 
results. 

In 1886, the United States ^\.q2cc[iqx Albatross visited 
the island, and found many antiquities of value ; and since 
then Sir H. Blake, while Governor of the Bahamas, 

* Popular Science Monthly, November, 18S9. 

t These three different types of the characteristic natives of these distinct groups of 
islands — Bahamas, Cuba and Haiti — I have had carefully drawn from my own photo- 
graphs, and from them the Ethnologist may be able to deduce something of value to 
science. 



IN GUANAHANI WITH COLUMBUS. 77 

thoroughly explored every island of his extensive pro- 
vince. Thus it will be seen that I myself could enter- 
tain but little hope of finding anything of importance, 
following in their wake. And, in truth, I do not make 
any claims that I did ; but every contribution to science is 
welcomed by the earnest investigator, and the little I 
can add, together with a grouping of all the "finds," 
here for the first time given, cannot be otherwise than 
acceptable. We groped for hours, on that and succeed- 
ing days, in the dark and dismal caves, finding many 
disjected fragments of skeletons and moldering bones, 
but no skeleton in its entirety — as its owner left it when 
he shuffled off this mortal coil. If Columbus only could 
have known — if the Indians themselves could — what a 
value would now attach to an aboriginal skeleton in this 
quadri-centennial of their discovery, perhaps some of 
them might have kindly bequeathed their bones to the 
investigators of posterity. But the "Admiral" cared 
more for gold than for bones, and as for the poor abori- 
gines, though many of them were eventually skeleton- 
ized by the Spaniards, it was not done in the interests 
of scientific investigation, but out of revenge; in the 
spirit of avarice, or lust. At all events, the three skulls 
I secured later, at Nassau, for the Exposition, and possi- 
bly one or two more, constitute all we have to work 
from. 

The caves themselves are interesting, but as I had 
already made the "grand round" of our own Mam- 
mouth Cave, there was little here to attract, more than 
could be found in other limestone formations. 

Subsequently, in Cat Island, I found other bones, and. 



78 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

as these were added to those obtained here, and the 
whole given in charge of Prof. Putnam, of the Depart- 
ment of Ethnology, something of interest may eventu- 
ate. Yes, I must confess to grievous disappointment, 
and I really felt quite incensed at Columbus and the 
aborigines that they should have been so inconsiderately 
forgetful as to leave no vestige of their remains. 

I did get on the trail of one (alleged) aboriginal skull ; 
and though the recollection of the misadventure is by 
no means pleasant; still, a good story shall never be 
omitted because it reflects on me, and I will give it 
without comment, if only to illustrate a certain phase 




INDIAN ANTIQUITIES, FROM THE BAHAJIAS. 

of negro character. It must be remembered that the 
people of Watling's Island were on the verge of starva- 
tion, and that my provisions and silver were, to say the 
least, very acceptable. It goes without saying, then, that 
if anything could have been obtained for money it was 
available then, at the time of my visit. More "guides " 
and laborers flocked around me than I could possibly 
employ, and more were really engaged than I had any 
use for. 

They were honest enough, and faithful, especially 



^ 



IN GUANAHANI WITH COLUMBUS. 79 

when the provision hampers were opened and the silver 
disbursed; but they didn't like work. I have a fellow- 
feeling for them there, but in view of the fact that they 
were in sore need of money, and that I offered to give 
them good prices for all the antiquities they could guide 
me to, it seemed to me they might have exerted them- 
selves a little more to our mutual advantage. At last 
one of the negroes recollected that a boy had told him 
of a skull he had seen, deep down in a cave, only a few 
days before. Of course, I dispatched him for that boy, 
instantly. 

The boy came; yes, he had seen the skull, and 
more than that, " dey was heaps ob bones, too, sah." I 
was afire at once; but as the hour was then late for the 
trip, I arranged for him to return next morning, which 
he promised faithfully to do. Morning came, but no 
boy. I sent one of the assistants in waiting to look him 
up, and as he did not return, another, until at last all 
the men had temporarily intermitted their entomologi- 
cal labors, and were scouring the fields for that boy. 
Night came, at last, but without the desired scientist, 
though the father of the delinquent came and told me 
a very doleful story of the disappearance of the skull. 

" De head-bone, Massa, him done gone ' tirely, sah; 
when ma boy done go look fo' 'em, sah, dey wan' no 
head-bone dah. I spec some Jumbie gos' gut 'em, sah." 

I looked at the man severely, and told him that was 
not true, which he admitted; but at the same time he 
•said his son had cleared out, and that I had to admit. 
Finally the truth came out. It seems that some months 
previously the American artist, Bierstadt, had sojourned 



80 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

here while painting, or rather making, the sketches for 
his famous picture of the Landing-place of Columbus. 
All unconsciously, he had been the cause of my discom- 
fiture. One of the negroes had brought him a skull, 
for which he had paid him a liberal price. But after 
the artist had departed, the officers of the chapel to 
which the negro belonged had hauled him over the 
coals, on the alleged offense of desecrating a grave. I do 
not suppose they for a moment entertained any scruples 
on the subject, but there was one thing they were unan- 
imous on: and that was, that the quondam owner of 
those bones would sometime appear, in ghostly shape, 
and demand satisfaction. The poor fellow was fright- 
ened, as they intended he should be, but as he had 
already spent the money received he could not make a 
division with the chapel — which the unregenerate 
declared was the real object of the discipline — and he 
was put on probation. 

This was the state of affairs when I entered into my 
negotiation, and it shows what a strong hold superstition 
still has upon those folk when, though in dire distress, 
they will not venture to relieve themselves at the risk of 
incensing the ghosts, or Jumbies. The boy did not 
appear during my stay, and I came away without the 
coveted cranium. As the black men themselves ex- 
pressed it, "Dat was 'one' on the Buckra;" but I here- 
with respectfully submit : the "Buckra" did not suffer 
so much by it as they did. 

But the bones are not the only remains the aborigines 
have left us by which to determine their status, for 
other objects are scattered throughout the West Indies.. 



i 



IN GUANAHANI WITH COLUMBUS. 81 

Their houses, having been of perishable materials, such 
as reeds and palm-leaves, nothing remains to show us 
what they were; but some of the implements they used, 
and even some of their household furniture, have been 
found. The most numerous articles that have been re- 
covered are those small stones carved and chipped in the 
shape of chisels, gouges, spear-heads, and even hoes and 
knives, known to collectors as "celts," and these have 
been found everywhere. And here again comes in the 
superstition and ignorance of the native, who, every- 
where in the West Indies, calls these artificially-shaped 
stones "thunderbolts." The belief that they are of 
celestial origin is firmly planted and ineradicable, and I 
have even seen some men who declare they themselves 
have seen the " t'underbolts " descend from the skies. 
In Fortune Island I met one old negro who affirmed 
that he had seen the identical stone I bought of him 
drop out of the clouds during a thunder-storm. " Don' 
yo' mek no mistek," he said, "me see him drap wiv my 
own eye. One time da come t'under-storm an' da tree 
in da front ma house he done 'truck ba de t'under, an' 
ma wife he say, 'I 'clar I b'leve t'underbol' done drap 
in yander tree ; ' an' sho nuff, when me go look an' zamine 
da he be right in de crack ob de lightnum. Me mus' 
b'leve um ef me see um. " 

The name is universal; in the interior of Santo Do- 
mingo I found they go by the name of '■'■ Piedras de 
Ray as,'' which is the equivalent in Spanish of ' ' Thunder- 
bolt. " One that I have in my possession, a beautiful 
green stone, of perfect shape, I obtained of an old gold- 
smith, in the historic region of gold where Columbus 



82 IN THE A¥AKE OF COLUMBUS. 

first found the precious metal. He employed it as a 
touch-stone, to indicate the purity of the gold brought 
him by the natives, by the streak left upon it after being 
rubbed with the gold. In color and texture, shape and 
workmanship, the celts of the Bahamas are exactly the 
same as those of the larger island far to the south ; and, 
as there is no stone similar to that of which they were 
made throughout the whole Bahama chain, the natural 




CARVED SEAT OF LIGNUM-VIT^, FROM THE BAHAMAS. 

inference is that the implements were imported, the In- 
dians living in the southern islands bringing them here 
for barter. This is highly probable, for the Caribs of 
the southern isles are known to have made long journeys 
in their canoes, as well as the dwellers in the Bahamas. ■ 
The kinds of implements found here indicate that the 
aborigines were peaceful and agricultural, exactly what 
Columbus described them, and not warlike, for few war- 
weapons have been found. In addition to these celts 
we note mortars and pestles; the latter with carved 



IN GUA'NAHANI WITH COLUMBUS. 83 

heads that have been taken for idols; beads of stone 
and oyster shell and fragments of pottery. The Indians, 
it is believed, made fairly good pottery, and cooked their 
food by heating stones and throwing them into the water 
till it boiled. Not alone the pottery, but all the articles 
3^et discovered, indicate that these Indians were in a 
very low state of civilization, not far removed from bar- 
barism, and it must have required a painful stretch of 
the imagination for Columbus to perceive in these simple 
people the rich and civilized inhabitants of Cathay, of 
whom he had dreamed of discovering. 

There yet remain other articles to mention, which 
show that these barbarians did have among them, or 
were in communication with, skillful artisans who 
carved wonderful things in wood and stone, the like 
of which have not been found elsewhere. Historian 
Herrera wrote that when the Indies were discovered, 
all the common people sat on the ground in the pres- 
ence of strangers, but that their chiefs made use of low 
seats, of stone or wood, carved in the shape of a beast 
or reptile, with very short legs, its head and tail erect, 
and with golden eyes. We believe this to have been 
the truth, because several such strange seats have 
been discovered, notably in the Caicos, and island of 
Grand Turk, in the southern Bahamas, where they may 
still be seen in the Public Library there. The Spanish 
Consul at Grand Turk also has a very rare thing in the 
shape of an Indian axe, of stone, the head and handle 
being of one piece; and another axe is there shown: the 
head of stone, and fitted into a wooden handle; an 
object of extreme rarity. Few of the many thousand 



•84 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

implements hitherto found, of the ancient peoples of 
America, have possessed the interest that attaches to 
this, because of its completeness. 

These, then, are about all that remain to us of the 
people discovered by Columbus, whose extinction he 
himself hastened by recommending and initiating their 
enslavement. Simple folk, without thought of harm, 
they early felt the evil effects of Spanish domination. 
Having no gold to tempt the cupidity of the conquerors, 
they for a time escaped their attention, but when slaves 
were needed for the mines of Haiti, then the Spaniards 
returned and snatched them from their homes. Even 
the very people whom Columbus praises as the most 
loving and gentle on earth, and who welcomed him and 
his crews as heaven-descended men, giving them all 
their possessions, were carried by these same men into 
a slavery worse than death. 

Ah, well ! We know not why it was that the strong 
should ever have oppressed the weak, and have stained 
their swords with innocent blood, in those first fierce 
days of America's beginnings. 

They are gone, now, all of them. We know the 
Spaniards' fate; but no one can tell when and where 
and how perished the last of Guanahani's gentle tribe. 



IV. 



'HERE WAS THE ADMIRAL's LANDFALL ? 




w 



'HO can tell 
where it lies 
— that first land 
sighted by Columbus 
and his crew, after 
their weary voyage 
across the Atlantic ? 
We will ignore the 
light the Admiral 
claimed to have 
seen because it has 
not been proved that 
he saw one; there 
are those who think 
it was but in keeping 
with his character to 
affirm a light that 
never shone, in order 
to defraud that poor 
sailor, Rodrigo de Triana, of his reward. Let us ig- 
nore the light, and land with Columbus on the coast 



MAP OF WATLING'S ISLAND. 



86 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

approached that memorable Friday, the twelfth of 
October, 1492. He landed, that is admitted; and he 
landed somewhere in the Bahamas; in all probability, 
as has already been stated, midway the chain. This 
much conceded, we turn to special investigators to ascer- 
tain upon which particular island of the group. Nearly 
every writer on the subject has a different theory; but 
fortunately there are a few who have given it exhaus- 
tive study, who have been over the ground in person, 
and who have received their impressions from actual 
observations. 

It happens also that those whose opinions are entitled 
to consideration, have received their training in the 
naval service, either of this country or of England, and 
are qualified to write of the voyage as brother mariners. 
The recognized authorities on the subject are Capt. A. 
B. Becher, of the English Navy, and Capt. G. V. Fox, 
of the United States Navy. I am aware that others 
have written, and have written well; but all we need 
may be found in the pages of the two writers above 
named. 

It was not until Capt. Becher's work, " The Landfall 
of Columbus," appeared, in 1856, that the question was 
agitated. Up to that time the conclusion of Wash- 
ington Irving, that the landfall was Cat Island, had 
been generally accepted. The routes had been care- 
fully worked out for Irving by an officer of the United 
States Navy, and had received the sanction and ap- 
proval of so high an authority as Humboldt. Navar- 
rete, from whom Irving drew much of the material for 
his history, assumed that Turk's Island coincided with 



WHERE WAS THE ADMIRAL'S LANDFALL? 



87 



that described by Colum- 
bus; and in the year 1846 
the late George Gibbs, for 
many years a resident of 
Grand Turk, ably sup- 
ported this theory, in a 
paper before the New York 
Historical Society. 

Capt. Fox wrote in sup- 
port of Samana, or Atwood 
Cay; but his work, so thor- 
ough in its investigations, 
and honest in its conclu- 
sions, rather re-enforces 
the statements of Becher, 
who claims Watling's Isl- 
and as the landfall. Capt. 
Becher is supported by 
Lieut. Murdock, who began 
on the coast of Cuba and 
traced the track of Colum- 
bus back to the island first 
sighted. 

A summary of their con- 
clusions, not only as to the 
conjectural landfall, but in 
regard to the islands sub- 
sequently discovered by 
Columbus, is herewith 
presented : 

It will be noted that no 



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88 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

two investigators agree as to the first landfall without 
disagreeing as to the second; and if they happen to 
coincide on the third, it is only to fall out over the 
fourth. And the difference between the extremes, as 
represented by Cat Island in the north, and Grand Turk 
in the south, is something like three hundred miles. 
But this is not material ; each writer had his own opin- 
ion, and perhaps a preconceived one, and by extracting 
a little truth here and a little there, we may approxi- 
mate a correct result. There is a consensus of opinion 
decidedly in favor of Watling's as the first landfall, and 
so eminent an authority as Judge Daly, of the American 
Geographical Society, holds to this theory. 

Says Major: " While agreeing with Capt. Becher in 
the identification of Guanahani with Watling's, I find 
that officer entirely at issue with the diary of Columbus 
in making him anchor near the northeast end of the 
island, and then sailing around its northern point. 
The first anchorage of Columbus in the New 
World was off the southeast point of Watling's Island, 
a position which entirely tallies with all his movements 
as mentioned in his diary." 

This is the opinion of a man who has never seen 
the island, but who has studied the subject so deeply 
that he thinks he knows all about it. His conclusions 
bear out the general statement, however, and are accept- 
able to the seeker after truth. Let us turn once more 
to the "Journal of Columbus," and question him again 
regarding his movements after he had landed. 

I shall assume Watling's to be the island, having 
found no conclusive evidence to the contrary. We 



WHERE WAS THE ADMIRAL'S LANDFALL? 89 

;£.ccept the courses of Columbus across the ocean (as 
worked out by the eminent navigators previously men- 
tioned) which brought him, at least approximately, to 
the center of the Bahama group. 

Hear, then, the evidence, presumably in his own 
words. I say presumably, because we have only an 
abstract from his journal, and not the original. The 
only evidence we have is in a manuscript copy of the 
" Diary of Colon, " found by Seiior Navarretein Spain, in 
1825 ; it is an abridgment of the "Journal of the First 
Voyage of Colon," made by the Bishop Las Casas, his 
famous contemporary, "the genuineness and authen- 
ticity of which copy have yet to be impeached." 

According to the journal of Columbus, then; first, as 
his vessels approached the island, they " lay to," outside 
the reefs, and after the landing: 

"This island is large and very level, has a very 
large lagoon in the middle, is without any mountain, 
and is all covered with verdure most pleasing to the 
•eye; " all which is applicable to Watling's, and particu- 
larly the " lagoon in the center," which does not exist 
in Cat ; a similar feature is found only in Crooked. 

It was inhabited : ' ' The people are remarkably gentle, 
have no iron, do not carry arms, and have no knowledge 
of them; are well-formed, of good size, and intelligent " 
— facts borne out by the remains discovered in modern 
times, such as crania, celts, agricultural implements and 
pottery. They had canoes, "made out of the trunks 
of trees, all in one piece." A canoe, or portion of one, 
was found in a cave near Riding-Rocks, the chief road- 
stead of Watling's Island. "They came to the boats, 



90 



IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 



swimming, bringing us parrots, cotton " (which grows in 
the island), etc. 

Cotton is indigenous here; parrots have been here 
within the memory of man, and are now found in flocks 
on Ackhn Island, one hundred miles to the southeast; 
the second growth of forest on Watling's Island is not 
high enough to afford them shelter. "I have seen here 
no beasts whatever, but parrots only." There are nO' 




THE HEADLAND COAST OF WATLING'S ISLAND. 



indigenous quadrupeds larger than a rat, and few rep- 
tiles, the largest being the iguana, which he mentions 
later, as seen in another island. 

After two days on the island — Sunday, October 14: 
"At dawn I ordered the boats of the ship and of the 
caravels to be got ready, and went along the island. 
I was afraid of a reef of rocks which entirely 
surrounds that island, although there is within it depth 
enough and ample harbor for all the vessels of Christen- 
dom ; but the entrance is very narrow. It is true that 



WHERE WAS THE ADMIRAL'S LANDFALL? 91 

the interior of that belt contains some rocks, but the 
sea is there as still as a well. " No more accurate de- 
scription could be written of the great barrier-reef that 
surrounds this island, nor of the aspect of its inclosed 
waters. 

In looking for a place to fortify, he found " a piece 
of land like an island, only it is not one, which in two 
days could be cut off and converted into an island." 
This was near the harbor, which in every particular 
answers to the sheltered Graham's Harbor, at the ex- 
treme end of the island; it is secure, though shallow, 
and ample for small vessels of the light draught of 
Columbus's time. As to the "piece of land like an 
island," this is found in "Cut Point," the eastern arm 
that protects Graham's Harbor from the open sea ; it is 
a long neck of land cut in two by the erosion of wave- 
action ; an island at high water, and part of the main- 
land at low tide. 

Thus far, there is no discrepancy whatever, and it is 
only as the Spaniards leave the island that an apparent 
variance is noted. 

" I observed all that harbor, and afterward I returned 
to the ship and set sail, and saw so many islands that I 
could not decide to which one to go first. ... In 
consequence, I looked for the largest one, and deter- 
mined to make for it, and am so doing, and it is probably 
distant five leagues from this of San Salvador, the others 
some more or less." 

This is the one weak link in the chain of evidence in 
favor of Watling's. There are no large islands visible 
from this one; but the objection is equally applicable to 



92 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

Cat, though not to Grand Turk. It is possible that the 
mariners may have been deceived, and mistook eleva- 
tions and depressions of the same island for different 
cays. I myself, in approaching Watling's from Fortune, 
noted that the detached portions of the island gradually 
coalesced, until what appeared to be several islets were 
merged into one. But again : one island is visible from 
Watling's; this is Rum Cay, which, in clear weather, 
may be discerned from the extreme southern point. It 
is twenty miles distant ; this agrees nearly with Colum- 
bus's estimate, for later he enters in his journal: " As 
the island was five leagues distant, rather seven, and 
tide detained me, it was about noon when I reached the 
said island, and I found that that side which is toward 
San Salvador runs North and South, and is five leagues in 
length, and the other, which I followed, ran East and 
West and contains over ten leagues." 

The description applies exactly to Rum Cay, both as to 
situation with respect to the other and as to shape; but 
the same allowance must be made for errors of measure- 
ment as before, since the estimates of Columbus were 
made from his vessel's deck, and by the eye, and can 
by no means be regarded as accurate. Reckoning the 
Spanish league at two and one half miles, we must in 
nearly every case deduct at least one third from the 
estimates of Columbus, as due to unconscious exaggera- 
tion. Imperfect as the transcription of the journal may 
be, there is not one single feature of its description that 
is not applicable to Watling's. Having landed on its 
northeast shore, Columbus sailed around the north end, 
coasted the west shore its entire length and departed 



I 



WHERE WAS THE ADMH^AL'S LANDFALL? 95 

from the southern point, making Rum Cay, as related. 
His course was southwest to Rum Cay, thence due west 
to another island visible in the distance. 

This was Long Island, and is accurately given, with 
the distance from the second island, or Rum Cay, the 
general trend of its shores, and configuration. ' ' And 
from this island of Santa Maria to the other are nine 
leagues, east and west, and all this portion of it runs 
northwest and southeast. . . . And being in the 
gulf midway between these two islands, I found a man 
in a canoe, who was going from Santa Maria to Fernan- 
dina " (the large island), " who had a small piece of his 
bread " (probably cassava), " a calabash of water, a small 
string of beads, and two blancas" (small coins), "by 
which I knew that he came from the island San Salvador, 
had passed to Santa Maria, and was now going to Fernan- 
dina. " This incident illustrates the boldness of these 
Indians, in venturing so far from land in their frail 
canoes, and explains the occurrence in these islands of 
articles that could only have been obtained from a great 
distance. This Indian also had "some dry leaves, 
highly prized, no doubt, among them, for those of San 
Salvador offered some to me as a present. " This was, 
presumably, tobacco, which was afterward found in use 
in Cuba. The Admiral took the Indian aboard and 
treated him kindly; not because of any liking for the 
poor fellow, but that his friends "may give us of all that 
they have." 

In Fernandina, in addition to things already seen, 
they first saw the hammock ; ' ' their beds and coverings 
looked like cotton nets," which they called Jiaviacas. 



96 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

No one who has seen Long Island, can doubt that it was- 
the third one visited by Columbus, for the reasons above 
stated ; in addition, his description of Clarence Harbor, 
"the very marvelous port with narrow entrance, " is- 
entirely confirmatory. 

After cruising two or three days up and down the- 
coast, detained and baffled by adverse winds, the Span- 
iards finally set sail for the southeast, and in three 
hours saw an island to the east, reaching its northern, 
extremity before midday. Here the vessels anchored 
at a little islet, which, without doubt, was Bird Rock, 
at the northwest extremity of Crooked Island. There 
is a light on it now, and it is the point of departure 
for Watling's, Rum Cay, and Long Island, on the course 
from Crooked and Fortune. 

As already intimated, I have been over the course, 
and have cruised along the shores of both Fortune 
and Crooked. And I can understand the enthusiasm 
of the Admiral, writing in his journal, with the scene 
before him at Crooked Island as I have had it: "If 
the other islands are beautiful, this is still more so: 
it has many trees, very green and very large, gentle 
hills enhance with their contrasts the beauty of the 
plains, . . . and this cape where I have anchored 
I have called Cape Beautiful, because it is so. I an- 
chored here because I saw this cape so green and 
beautiful, as are all the things and lands of these 
islands, so that I do not know to which to go first, nor 
do my eyes grow tired with looking at such beautiful 
verdure, so different from our own. . . . Here are 
some large lagoons, and around them are the trees, so- 



WHERE WAS THE ADMIRAL'S LANDFALL? 



97 



that it is a marvel, and the grass is as green as in 
Andalusia in April. And the songs of the little birds 
are such that it seems as if a man could never leave 
here." 

Ah, yes! I, too, like the great Admiral, have heard 
those "songs of little birds," and have felt it was a joy 
to listen to them. 

Now, even as then, the mocking-bird pours out his 
melody for all to hear. The great forests are gone; 




THE COAST OF WATLING'S ISLAND. 



their human occupants have passed away, a different 
race dwells here ; but the odorous thickets remain, from 
which "the odors came so good and sweet, from flowers 
and trees on land, that it was the sweetest thing in the 
world; " and the mocking-birds dwell herein, gladden- 
ing the heart of man with their music. I remember, 



98 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

one was my neighbor at Watling's, living in an orange- 
tree near the eastern window of my hut, and his notes 
began at dawn, even before, continuing at intervals all 
the day. At hottest noon, when everything else was 
hushed and lifeless, he would mount to the topmost 
twig of his tree, and pant forth a gush of liquid melody. 
Without them, else, these thickets are silent and without 
sign of life. 

The fauna of a country changes little, even in the 
lapse of centuries, and probably the bird-life was simi- 
lar to what it is to-day. There may have been some 
changes, but mainly wrought through the agency of 
man; for instance: bird- collectors have nearly exter- 
minated the song-birds of some islands, merely for the 
small sums they receive for the skins. Not only are 
they collected for the adornment of women's hats and 
bonnets, but there are men whose sole ambition is to pos- 
sess the largest collection of birds of any given locality ; 
these send out hordes of boys, who murder for money 
the choicest feathered friends of man. Were the inhabi- 
tants of the islands more enlightened, they would send 
these collectors to jail as soon as they began their 
nefarious work. 

The sailors killed an iguana here, which they called 
a serpent; they found aloes, loading the ships with a 
quantity; they filled the water-casks, at a spot now 
called " Frenchman's Wells," and in this same island of 
Fortune first heard of "an island which the natives 
call Cuba, but which I think must beCipango. " The 
twenty-fourth of October they sailed, leaving with re- 
gret this island that had so entranced them. 



2V 




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75 " 



"VN6US 



CoNcePTi 



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\ 7£ 







WHERE WAS THE ADMIRAL'S LANDFALL? 101 

"At midnight I weighed anchor from the Island of 
Isabella and the cape of the Rocky Islet (Bird Rock), 
in order to go to the island of Cuba, which these people 
tell me is very large, with much trade, and yielding 
gold and spices ; and by their signs I understand it to 
be the island of Cipango, of which marvelous things are 
related, and which, on the globes and maps I have seen, 
is in this region ; and they told me I should sail to reach 
it west-southwest, as I now am sailing." 

The next night, the southern cape of Fernandina bore 
northwest, and the next islands were sighted, called 
by the Admiral las Islas de Arenas (Sand Islands). 
Departing from these, leaving them on the north, at 
sunrise, two days later, October 28, he saw the island of 
Cuba. 

With the discovery of Cuba, the voyage through the 
Bahamas terminates. After the first landing-place on 
the Cuban coast has been defined, the journal is less 
ambiguous, and we can follow the explorers step by 
step. Before we leave the subject, however, I desire 
one more word as to the latest conclusions regarding 
the landfall and the islands subsequently visited by 
Columbus. I have given a summary of opinions up to 
the time of my own investigation. But, since I was sent 
out specially commissioned by the Executives of the 
Columbian Exposition to ascertain the truth, if possi- 
ble, and devoted much time and study to the question, 
it would only be fair to those gentlemen of the Exposi- 
tion, as well as to myself, to present my own conclusions. 
They are fully borne out by the results of the expedition 
sent out in 1891 by the Chicago Herald, whose chief, 



102 



IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 



Mr. Wellman, made an able and exhaustive report at 
the time, and erected on or near the conjectural landing- 
place on Watling's Island, a handsome commemorative 
monument. 

Our investigations were entirely independent, as I 

was in the Southern 
West Indies at the time 
of the Herald expedi- 
tion and came up to Wat- 
ling's from the island of 
Haiti, while Mr. Well- 
man went there from Nassau. Our visits were exactly 
a year apart, but together we have surveyed the entire 
field of controversy, and the following emended table is 
given, as approximating a correct result : 




c«i-rs)»,n<!l, 
INDIAN CELT, FKOM CAT ISLAND. 



San Salvador 
Guanahani 


Santa Maria 


Fernandina 


Isabella 


Islas de Arenas 


Cuban 


Watling's 


Rum Cay 


Long Island 


Crooked 
Fortune 


Ragged, or 
Columbus Bank 


Port 
Jibarra 



Crooked and Fortune are given as one island, for so 
they were regarded by Columbus, being separated only 
by a narrow sound, and doubtless they are the same 
that are figured on the earliest maps as the "Tri- 
angles," from their very obvious triangular shape, as 
taken together. In conclusion, to fix firmly the names 
bestowed by Columbus, we will quote from the letter 
written by him to Luis de Santangel, Chancellor of the 
Exechequer of Aragon, giving the first account of the 
first voyage : 



WHERE WAS THE ADMIRAL'S LANDFALL? 



lOS 




Ei»AtK,rj, . ^^- 



^Sr^Tsll. 



" To the first island I found, I gave the name of San 
Salvador, in remembrance of His High Majesty, whO' 
hath marvelously brought all these things to pass ; the 
Indians call it Guanahani. To the second, I gave the 
name of Santa Maria 
de la Concepcion ; the 
third I called Ferna- 
dina, the fourth Isa- 
bella, the fifth Juana, 
(Cuba); and so to 
each I gave a new name, and when I reached Juana I 
followed its coast, and found it so large that I thought 
it must be the mainland — the province of Cathay." 

He was undeceived as to the existence of a West In- 
dian Cathay, but his surmise as to its insular character 
was not verified until after his death, when, in 1508,, 
Cuba was first circumnavigated. 



INDIAN CHISEL FOUND IN THE ISLANDS. 




STONE AXE, TURK'S ISLAND, 



V. 



THROUGH THE BAHAMA ISLES. 

WATLING'S Island is distant from New York, by 
the route the steamers take to Aspinwall, or 
Colon, just one thousand miles: a little more than half- 
way to the Isthmus of Panama. It is one hundred 
miles from Fortune Island, and one hundred and sev- 
enty-five miles from Nassau, the capital, on the island 
of New Providence. Its only connection with the out- 
side world is by an infrequent sailing-vessel of small 
tonnage, and the mail-boat which runs irregularly 
between the capital and Inagua, touching at the " out- 
island," one way or the other. 

Having dropped me at Riding- Rocks, the black man 
owning the turtler had performed his part of the charter, 
and he sailed away, leaving me dependent upon the ar- 
rival of the mail-boat. She might get here any time 
during the week, as her movements were erratic, and her 
master unreliable. I wanted to spend all the time possi- 
ble at the north coast, in the vicinity of the light-house, 
so a strict watch was kept from the light-house tower for 
the first signs of her approach. Early on the morning 
of the fifth day, the mail-boat was signaled from the 

104 



THROUGH THE BAHAMA ISLES. 



105 



tower, and I tore myself away from the fascinating- spot, 
regained our boat, which we had left lying in the mud of 
the lagoon, and hastened for the settlement at Cockburn 
Town. 

Half-way down the lagoon we met a large boat filled 
with laborers going to their " farms," as they call the 
bare spaces of rock divested of all vegetation, which 
they try to cultivate. The boat was filled with women, 
for the men are nearly all engaged on the sea. When 




NATIVES OF WATLING'S ISLAND. 

{Not found by Oolumbus.) 

they learned that the "mail " was coming, nearly all of 
them wished me to give them passage in my small boat 
to the town ; for nearly all had friends or relatives on 
board. In my opinion, my craft had room for only one 
more, and I so told them; but in spite of my state- 
ment a woman and a baby got in, and then the mother 
declared her little boy must go, too. These accessions 
to my passenger list filled the boat to overflowing, so I 



106 



IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 



Sternly forbade any more entering the craft, and shoved 
away, leaving one young negress almost suspended in 
mid-air in her frantic endeavors to board us. 

Arrived at the town, I found the master of the Ar- 
gosy, as the mail 
vessel was named, 
fuming at the de- 
lay; but he waited 
until I got my ef- 
fects together, and 
at noon we were 
sailing southwest 
to Rum Cay. It 
was hot, of course, 
at high noon, as 
in fact it is at 
any time between 
eight in the morn- 
ing and five in the 
evening , but all 
among these islands the shores are bathed in the limpid 
waters described by Columbus, and the atm.osphere is 
blai. vi. At last, the white sands flashed a final fare- 
well, the crimson bloom of the flame-trees became 
merged in the sky-line, turning the sunset clouds to 
pink, and Guanahani faded from my sight. 

Coincident with its disappearance. Rum Cay rose, 
boldly outlined, and at dusk we anchored in behind the 
reefs. A sad little town sits here, by the white sand 
beach ; its ruling people are blacks, its ambitions long 
since crushed, its future like the people — black. 




PUSHING THROUGH THE CANAL, WATLING'S 
ISLAND. 



THROUGH THE BAHAMA ISLES. 107 

After touching at Long Island, we reached Cat Island 
at dawn, and lay there all day, for no reason except that 
the captain did not want to reach the home port before 
Sunday. The sun poured down a fiery iiood of torment 
all day long. I could get no other shelter than the 
shadow of the main-boom — which was barely enough 
to cover my hat — and to retain even this slight protec- 
tion, I was compelled to dodge from side to side at every 
motion of the vessel. Under the circumstances, I did 
not consider a request for an awning, or the shelter of a 
sail, as unreasonable; but when I proffered it, he turned 
upon me with : " I'se got a yawning aboard, but I won't 
humbug wid it, to please nobody. " 

I expostulated, of course, for even a white man has 
feelings; but the only answer I got was, that others had 
lived through it, and he guessed I could. My every 
entreaty failed to move him. Fortunately, some men 
came aboard who knew of a cave in the cliffs on shore, 
and took me to it, where I found some human bones, relics 
of the Lucayos, who inhabited here at the time Colum- 
bus came. Some have claimed, as we have read, 
that Cat Island is the true Guanahani; but, as I have 
set forth in my chapter on the landfall, the proof s'^^are 
wanting. In the Bahamas, the question of "the first 
land" is mostly a matter of local feeling. As the 
American Consul at Nassau once observed to me : ' * The 
generally accepted opinion here is in favor of Watling's, 
except at Cat, where the people are outraged that any 
place couid be thought of except their own island." 

Off the "Bight," the port at Cat Island at which 
we called, there was no sign of life ashore. One saw 



108 



IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 



here, as in all the islands, blue water, glaring yellow 
sands, a narrow belt of far-extending reefs,' very low 
hills without attractive vegetation, and a line of forlorn 
huts and houses near the beach. The chief production 
of the island is the pineapple, which is shipped in large 
quantities to Nassau and New York. 

I met some charming people ashore : the clergyman, 
the resident magistrate, and their wives; they were 




CAVE ON CAT ISLAND. 



ver}^ kind dtiring my brief stay, and, with one or two 
exceptions, were the first white people I had seen in 
two weeks. The white person, in truth, is a.%rara avis 
in the out-islands, being almost as scarce as the white 
blackbird is in nature. With the exception of the resi- 



THROUGH THE BAHAMA ISLES. 109 

dent magistrate, and sometimes the collector, one finds 
none but the black man " on deck. " The speech shows 
the trail»of the African serpent, even in the mouths of 
preachers and teachers, who are nearly all black or 
colored. Aside from the amenities of the climate, and 
the delights of bathing, boating and hunting, there is 
little to tempt a person of sensibility and sympathetic 
nature to these islands; and to consign one here to fill 
out the measure of his existence, would be the crushing 
out of ambition and healthful zest in life. 

A night's run brought us within sight of the island of 
New Providence, on which is the Bahama capital, Nas- 
sau. Here my disagreeable boat trip was to termi- 
nate, and here I should find the elegant steamers of the 
Ward Line, running to New York. The captain of the 
Argosy, whatever his failings as a man, was a good 
navigator; he had brought us safely through the intri- 
cate and shallow channels of Exuma Sound on a dark 
night, without a fault. We were all delighted to view 
the promised haven: my black companions, as well as 
the dogs, the pigs, the cows, and the hens, all of whom 
had enjoyed the run of the deck and the cabin equally 
with myself. 

In the intense heat of noon, I made my way to a 
boarding-house, and sat down to await the arrival of the 
north-bound steamer. Meeting at Nassau many delight- 
ful people, the time passed pleasantly, although the 
regular season was long since over, it being then the 
last of July. 

The Governor, Sir Ambrose Shea, was unfortunately 
absent from the island, having been called to New- 



110 



IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 



foundland by the disastrous fire which occurred there 
in July; otherwise I should have had the pleasure of 
meeting this distinguished gentleman, who has attempted 
so much toward improving the condition of the Bahamas. 
My mission to him, as the head of the Government, was 




ON THE BEACH OF WATLING'S ISLAND. 

{Looking for the landing-place of Columbus.) 

to induce, if possible, the Bahamas to co-operate with 
us at the Exposition ; in his absence I was referred to 
the Hon. H. M. Jackson, Colonial Secretary, and then 
acting Governor. This gentleman has had a wide ex- 
perience in colonial affairs, and I am sure it was not 
due to his lack of ability that the Bahamas did not 



THROUGH THE BAHAMA ISLES. m 

accept our invitation, and do themselves the honor of 
participating in the benefits of this great occasion. 

It would seem that was Bahama's opportunity to 
emerge from a seclusion of centuries, and show to the 
world what she had worth the world's cognizance; 
but her rulers decided otherwise. Her Governor has 
spent a great deal of money, and dilated a great deal 
upon the future of these beautiful islands ; he has made 
frantic efforts to induce investments of foreign capital, 
especially in the culture of hemp (the agave), and to 
call attention to the advantages offered as a winter 
resort. And now, to refuse the one opportunity of the 
century to make known all these desirable things, by 
sending to Chicago a representative exhibit of Bahama's 
resources, was, in my opinion (and with all respect due 
to one of His Excellency's age and exalted station), the 
depth of foolishness and absurdity. It reminded me, 
as I stated to the officials at the time, of a merchant 
who should stock his warehouses with a varied assort- 
ment of attractive goods, spending upon their accumu- 
lation the bulk of his capital, and then close his doors 
and shutters, and refuse to advertise. The Bahamas 
are dependent entirely upon the United States for their 
very life, and from mere contiguity, in common with 
all the West Indian islands, their future is bound up 
with ours. 

The truth may as well be told now — for it is the truth, 
and will eventually "out: " all these islands are suffer- 
ing from the dry-rot of foreign domination. 

Whatever England may have been to her colonial 
possessions in the past — and it cannot be denied that 



112 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

she spent unrequited treasure, and shed unstinted the 
blood of her bravest men in acquiring and defending 
these possessions — she is no longer necessary to them 
now. More than that: she is a clog upon their pro- 
gress, retarding their development, and draining their 
life-blood; first, owing to her inability to provide for 
them a lucrative commerce, through distance, and a 
meager market ; second, through the immense army of 
officials saddled upon an unwilling people, in spite of 
their protests. Personally, I must confess to an admi- 
ration of the English in official station in the West In- 
dies ; I am well aware of their probity, and I know that 
they have operated to prevent many an island from 
lapsing into semi-barbarism; it will be a dark day on 
the page of civilization when England's cordon of sol- 
diers is withdrawn again unto herself. But, in spite of 
herself, England's effect upon the West Indian is retard- 
ative, even retrogressive; if she had done nothing more 
than inffict upon an innocent people her archaic and 
monstrous monetary nomenclature and system, it would 
be sufficient. Locally, they have broken with their 
traditions on 'this score, and have substituted our own 
decimal system, to the great saving of time and friction 
of conscience; but, through the colonial banks, they 
still cling to pound-shilling-and-pence in their dealings 
with the " mother- country, " and suffer their aesthetic 
sense to be violated through a circulation of bank-notes 
that would discredit even our provincial currency of a 
century ago. 

To turn from this subject to one less likely to irritate 
my good friends in the Bahamas: I recall an incident of 



I 



THROUGH THE BAHAMA ISLES. 113 

a previous trip, showing- that the Bahama darkies do 
not discriminate against us on account of difference 
of silver, but accept with equal readiness English or 
American. 

I was going about one day, with my camera, when 
I was hailed by a group of divers, huddled together 
on the wharf: 

" Say, boss, don' you wan' t'row a nickel in de 
watah? " 

"What for?" 

"Wha' fo' ? Why, fo' see um grab um, fo' he sink 
to de bottom." 

" No; I've seen that too often, but I'll do better than 
that; I'll give you ten cents each, if you'll do as I tell 
you." 

"Golly, boss; we'll do dat, you jes' bet. Now wha' 
yo' wan' ? " 

"Well, I want to take three photographs of you all: 
one on the wharf, one in the air, and another in the 
water. Now get ready. " i 

"Yis, boss; wese all ready." They were, in fact, 
always ready, having nothing on but the airiest of cloth- 
ing and an expansive grin. 

"Very well ; are you sure you're ready ? " 

" O, yis! wese a'ready an' waitin' ; yo' jes' gib de 
word." 

I gave the word: "One, two" — intending to start 
them at "three " ; but they were so eager that all went 
into the air at "two," — and the result was not exactly 
as intended. 

But I got a snap-shot in mid-air, and afterward in 



114 



IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 



the water, where their heads bobbed about just like so 
many black Jack-o'-lanterns. They are jolly little fel- 
lows, these darky divers, and enliven the tedium of 
many a wait at the wharves. 

One meets with these divers almost everywhere in 
the West Indies, but in Nassau and St. Thomas they 
are most numerous and proficient. When diving in 




THE SILK-COTTON-TEEE — NASSAU. 



open water, they would seem to be in danger from 
sharks, but I never heard of an instance of disaster. In 
St. Thomas, I remember, one of these boys was seen to 
coolly kick a shark aside, that had come up close to a 
coin he was diving after, and the great fish swam off in 
apparent alarm. 



THROUGH THE BAHAMA ISLES. 115 

In his journeyings in these out-islands one finds many 
strange people. Just before my arrival at Fortune 
Island, there had died a man with an idiosyncracy that 
made him locally noted. For many years he dressed 
as a woman, wearing the petticoats with all the grace 
attainable, and taking great pleasure in being addressed 
as "Miss Nancy." And as "Miss Nancy" he finally 
became known, no one thinking of calling him anything 
else. 

He led a harmless, blameless life, always taking a 
great interest in the church, and at his death leaving 
quite a little property for its maintenance. He was 
everywhere respected, and although he wore a full 
beard, no one seemed to notice the incongruity. 

The American Consul, Mr. McLain, who has resided 
in Nassau these many years, assisted me to the best of 
his ability, and made my stay agreeable. 

The Vice-Consul, Mr. H. R. Saunders, was indefati- 
gable in his efforts to inspire the business men with a 
sense of their responsibilities in the matter of exhibits, 
and addressed letters to all the out-islands requesting 
contributions to the ethnological collection I was en- 
deavoring to form. 

Everybody knows, of course, of the numerous attrac- 
tions of Nassau : of its beautiful roads and drives, 
its delightful winter climate, the wonderful " sea-gar- 
dens " in the sound adjacent, the *' Queen's Staircase ' 
—which Her Majesty never saw — the magnificent silk- 
cotton in the court-house yard, and the Columbus statue. 
Regarded simply as a work of art, this statue in the 
Government grounds must be pronounced a failure ; but 



116 



IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 



there is a story told anent its landing, which may bear 
repeating, perhaps, as it illustrates the misapprehensions 
in the black man's mind regarding the great Navigator. 

I remember the ques- 
tion of the old darky, 
who took me in his 
"turtler" over to Wat- 
ling's Island, on learn- 
ing that I was in search 
of information of Co- 
lumbus : 

' ' Say, boss, who is 
dis ole man Columbia? 
Ise been sailing here- 
about dese forty year, 
an' Ise neber see him ! " 
But the story they 
relate of his colored 
brother in Nassau shows 
a better knowledge of historical events, and is as follows : 
Scene, court-room; lawyer for defense attempting to 
impeach veracity of a witness on side of plaintiff. "So 
you say you've lived here many years? " 
"Yis, boss. " 

"Then I suppose you can remember when Columbus 
landed here. " 

"O, yis, boss! I 'members dat 'stinckly. '' 

"You do?" 

"Yis, sah." 

"And you're sure you do?" 

"Suttenly, boss." 




STATUE OF COLUMBUS — FRONT VIEW. 



i 



THROUGH THE BAHAMA ISLES. 



117 



"That will do. Your Honor, this witness's memory 
is evidently out of order, and I claim a verdict for the 
defense. " 

The judge was of his opinion also, when the plaintiff's 
lawyer rose to the occasion. " Wait a moment, gentle- 
men, perhaps the witness is not so far wrong. Now, 
Cuffie, when was it you saw Columbus land, and how did 
he come ashore?" 

"Well, boss, I t'ink 'twas 'bout' 31, an' C'lumbus he 
come shore in de big boxes. " 

The lawyer for plaintiff claimed, and obtained, the 
verdict. 

As I have intimated, travel 
in the Bahamas has not ar- 
rived at that point of perfec- 
tion the visitor might desire, 
and before Nassau becomes 
the great and popular resort 
for winter tourists, steam com- 
munication must be estab- 
lished between the islands. 

The islands, rocks and cays 
of the Bahama chain aggre- 
gate some three thousand; 
they stretch from Florida to 
Haiti, and are uniformly level, 
the highest elevation not ex- 
ceeding three hundred feet. 

Their formation is the same throughout: "calcareous 
rock of coral and shell hardened into limestone, honey- 
combed and perforated, with innumerable cavities, and 




STATUE OF COLUMBUS — KEAR 
VIEW. 



118 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

without a trace of primitive rock. The soil, though thin, 
is astonishingly fertile, and vegetation grows luxuri- 
antly." The population is from forty-five thousand to 
fifty thousand ; about one third of the whole number be- 
ing white. For many years after their discovery, the 
Bahamas were unvisited, the attention of the Spaniards 
being directed to the richer islands to the south, and 
to Mexico and Peru. They returned hither for slaves, 
but made no settlements. In 15 12, Ponce de Leon 
threaded the chain in search of the Fountain of Youth 
— which, by the way, is said to be in the island of 
Bimini — but the first settlement was made by the Eng- 
lish, in 1629. They were dispossessed, and the islands 
were a battle ground between the English and Spanish 
residents. 

Then the buccaneers made them their rendezvous 
until after the Revolution ; since that event Great Brit- 
ain has held them undisturbed. The first inhabitants 
lived by buccaneering, piracy and smuggling, varying ; ! 
their pursuits, later on, by wrecking; this occupation, 
however, they have at length reluctantly abandoned; 
and there are many to-day who regard the light-houses 
with undisguised resentment, saying that they, by pre- 
venting wrecks, take the bread out of their mouths. But 
the good old times are gone, never to return, and the 
former wreckers now have to turn to sponging, turtling 
and couching, sometimes making great hauls. Among 
these islands, and only here, I believe, the famous pink 
pearl is found; it is highly prized, and sometimes 
brings enormous prices. About Crooked and Acklin 
Islands the conchs are found in great quantities, and 



THROUGH THE BAHAMA ISLES. 



119 



I procured a very pretty pearl from a fisherman at Wat- 
ling-'s Island. 

Not alone are the shells of the Bahamas beautiful, 
the tropical fish, as well, disport the brightest colors. 
These were particularly described by Columbus, who 
was attracted by them; and one should see them swim- 
ming amongst the coral branches, flashing silver-like 






GUANAHANI, OK WATLING'3 ISLAND — LADY BLAKE'S AQUAEELLE. 



gleams from their sides, and streaking the clear water 
with bright colors, to appreciate his enthusiasm. Aside 
from the sea-products. Nature has been prodigal with 
her gifts on land, for though the soil is scant, the wild- 
flowers bloom in myriads. The talented wife of Sir 
Henry Blake, when residing in the Bahamas, made a 
series of drawings that embraced nearly all the wild 
flowers known to the islands, and exhibited at the 



120 



IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 



Jamaica exhibition above a hundred beautiful varieties. 
There are also many woods useful in the arts and materia 
medica, as well as all the fruits of the tropic zone. All 
this information is, I fear, more or less encyclopaedic, 
and may be found in the guide-books ; I would like my 
own work to be as free as possible from the common- 
place ; but if now and then I lapse into the statistical, it 
is only from a conscientious desire to be thorough. 

The steamers of the Ward Line are perhaps the best 
known of any that ply between New York, the Baha- 
mas, and Cuban ports ; were it not for them these islands 
would, indeed, be badly off. I had sighted the Santiago 
of this line on her southward course, just off Rum Cay, 
passing almost within hail, but it was nearly two weeks 
before she returned to Nassau from the south ports of 
Cuba. I then embarked on her for New York. But 
although I returned to the States, and shortly after 
terminated my labors for the Exposition, my narrative 
does not conclude here, as I have taken my last adven- 
tures first, in order to have them in sequence with the 
route followed by Columbus. 



1 




•tMMnKit^,: 



VI. 



THE COMMISSIONER S MISSION TO CUBA. 



WHEN I received 
my commission 
as special representa- 
tive of the World's 
Columbian Exposition, 
I was engaged in my 
profession of lecturing, 
and had ' ' dates " in 
various parts of the 
country for the entire 
season. These I was 
obliged to cancel, of 
course, giving two 
months' notice, and my 
last lecture was deliv- 
ered in Newton, Massa- 
chusetts, the last night 
of December, 1890. It 
was concluded at half- 
past nine ; that night, at eleven, I was on board a train 
bound for Washington, which city I reached at three the 

121 




TABLET BUST IN CATHEDRAL AT HAVANA, 
IN MEMORY OF COLUMBUS. 



122 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

next afternoon, received my instructions from the chief of 
the Latin- American Department, and at eight o'clock that 
evening took the train again for Chicago. There were 
nine of us, all newly- appointed Commissioners, each one 
assigned to a separate province of the West Indies, Cen- 
tral or South America, and all combined were to in- 
clude the whole of that vast region lying between the 
United States and Patagonia : to cover the countries of 
America south of us, from the frozen North to the Land 
of Fire. Arrived at Chicago the following night, we 
were taken to the Palmer House, where quarters had 
been engaged for us, and the next day paid our respects 
to the Director-General of the Exposition, and to the 
officials comprising the executive department, by whom 
we were taken in charge and instructed as to our duties. 

That afternoon we met the African explorer Stanley, 
at a reception at the rooms of the Union League Club, 
listened to one of his lectures in the evening, seated on 
the stage of the vast auditorium, and were entertained 
at a dinner given by one of the directors. Dinners and 
receptions followed swiftly after, and we had a taste of 
that hospitality for which the great Western city is 
celebrated ; and if it was the intention of otu- friends to 
make us sensible of the joys we were soon to leave 
behind us, and extremely loath to turn our unwilling 
feet toward the fields of our labors, they succeeded 
admirably. 

One day we were taken to the park, and shown the 
sites of the buildings that have since been erected ; the 
next we had the pleasure of meeting the talented Presi- 
dent of the Ladies' Board, and receiving from her infor- 



THE COMMISSIONER'S MISSION TO CUBA. 123 

mation for our guidance in soliciting exhibits for the 
Women's Department ; and we were impressed with the 
fact (since so conclusively confirmed) that her plans were 
wise, far-reaching, and well matured in advance. The 
ladies of the Women's Board were extremely anxious to 
reach and develop any latent resource of their sisters in 
Latin America, and we promised our active co-operation. 

A week passed pleasantly, during which we became 
thoroughly imbued with the true Chicago spirit of energy 
and enterprise ; then, having become acquainted with the 
aims, purposes and comprehensive projects of the exe- 
cutives of the great Exposition, we hastened away to our 
respective fields. 

Within a month we were scattered all over the' south- 
ern continent and adjacent islands; were preaching the 
Exposition gospel in half a dozen different languages, 
and expounding to a dozen different governments the 
greatness of the American nation, and the greatest of 
all its undertakings. We had been impressed with the 
ability and energy of our chiefs, and it was evident to 
us that they had a grasp of the situation that was per- 
fectly amazing ; guiding us, directing us, following every 
movement and anticipating every need, with an intelli- 
gent comprehension of our wants that was wonderful. 
Inspired, then, with the importance of our mission, in 
behalf of the greatest exhibition of the world's history, 
and supported by the sympathetic co-operation of our 
superiors in office, we could not but share in their en- 
thusiasm. If any of us failed in our endeavors, it was 
not because of lack of support at Chicago, nor from any 
faults of our chiefs. 



124 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

I was one of the first in the field, as my province lay 
contiguous, in a measure, to our own country. I was 
furnished with elaborate "instructions" for my guid- 
ance, of which the following is an abstract: 



To Frederick A. Ober, Esq., 

Cotnmissiojier to the West Indies. 

Sir: — You have been designed for duty under the Department 
of State, in connection with the World's Columbian Exposition, as a 
Commissioner to the West Indian Islands. The success of your mission 
will depend upon your own energy and discretion, but for your general 
guidance in the performance of your duties, I am directed by the Secre- 
tary of State to hand you the following instructions : 

1. You will proceed at your earliest convenience to visit the several 
West Indian Islands, and upon your arrival at the principal cities thereof 
will report yourself to the Consuls of the United States, to whom you 
will be furnished letters of introduction and commendation. These offi- 
cials will be directed to assist you, and promote the object of your mis- 
sion in every possible way, and will present you to the Governor or Chief 
Magistrate of the colony in which they reside. . . . 

2. Your first duty will be to explain fully to the proper officials of the 
islands you visit the plan and scope of the Exposition, express to them 
the desire of the Government and people of the United States that all 
of the islands shall be adequately represented, and ask their aid in secur- 
ing the co-operation of commerical organizations and the public at large 
in obtaining as complete an exhibit as possible. 

It will be necessary, also, to secure the publication, as widely as pos- 
sible, under the official sanction, of the plan and classification of the 
Latin-American Department, the arrangements for transportation, care 
and custody of exhibits, and such other information as may be useful 
and interesting to possible exhibitors and the public generally. To this 
end it is essential that you place yourself at once in communication with 
the newspapers, and furnish them from time to time with such matter as 
they may be willing to publish. ... It is of course desirable that 
every one of the islands should appoint Commissioners to the Exposi- 
tion, furnish their own buildings, and make as large a display as possible 







PALai AVENUE. 



t 



THE COMMISSIONER'S MISSION TO CUBA. 127 

of their own resources, their industries and products. This matter should 
be brought to the attention of the several Governments as soon as pos- 
sible, and cannot be too strongly urged; anA in case such Commis. 
sioners are appointed, you will afford them all the information and 
assistance in your power. ... If they cannot be induced to erect 
their own buildings, you are authorized to inform the proper officials 
and probable exhibitors that all the space they may need will be reserved 
for them, under the printed regulations furnished you by the Director- 
General. . . . You will inform yourself fully before starting upon 
your mission as to the customs regulations regarding the importation 
of goods intended for exhibition, so as to explain them intelligently to 
exhibitors, and will be furnished with printed forms prepared at the 
Treasury Department. . . . You will place yourself at once in com- 
munication with directors of museums, botanical gardens, scientific so- 
cieties, etc., and secure from them such collections as they maybe willing 
to furnish. . . . The local museums doubtless contain valuable 
archseological and historical collections, and it is desirable that what- 
ever is interesting should be transported to Chicago, and you will take 
steps to induce the Governments to include them in their exhibits, as 
illustrative of the history of the islands. It is hardly necessary to speak 
of the desirability of securing exhibits illustrating the peculiar institu- 
tions, as well as the habits and customs of the people. You can furnish 
valuable assistance to the Government in securing, classifying and mount- 
ing these exhibits ; and you may also be able to obtain their assistance 
in making archaeological investigations to secure fresh collections. 
• . . You will be good enough to make as many photographs as pos- 
sible of objects of interest noticed in your travels, as the educational 
value of a collection showing the homes, customs, and daily life of the 
people, cannot be overestimated. . . . While the details of routes 
of travel are left entirely to your discretion, it would seem advisable for 
you to.visit the most unhealthy of the islands during the winter season; 
but you will kindly report your movements and plans to this office as 
regularly as practicable, and you will be furnished with a cable code, to 
be used in cases of emergency. . . . The West Indies are rich in 
fiber plants, and the same may be said of medicinal plants, barks, roots, 
seeds and flowers, which should in every case be labeled with care, and 
there should be full explanations in your note-books of the local methods 
of preparing and applying the same, as well as the diseases for which they 



128 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

are remedies. Superstitions and legends connected with sucli plants are 
always interesting, and often valuable." 

Equally full and complete were my instructions 
regarding the woods of the West Indies, the miner- 
als, mining operations, manufactures: in fact, every 
province of nature, art and science, was exhaustively 
presented, showing with what thoroughness my chief 
had prepared for the important work. Nor was the 
commercial world overlooked, as the following excerpt 
shows : 

" As one of the important objects of the Exposition is to promote com- 
mercial intercourse, it is desirable to secure, for the information of the 
merchants and manufacturers of the United States, a complete display, 
showing the various classes of merchandise consumed and desired by 
the people of your province, the patterns and designs most preferred, 
the best methods of packing and preparing, practical illustrations of the 
obstacles in the way of extending our trade, and the advantages that are 
secured and enjoyed by European merchants in competition with those of 
our own country. The value of such an exhibit cannot be over-estimated." 

And finally : 

" Your attention is particularly called to that portion of the Classifica- 
tion which relates to a collection of the relics of Columbus. The field 
to which you are assigned must contain many things of great value and 
interest, and you will devote your energies to securing articles for this 
collection. It is understood that the ruins of the first city founded by 
Columbus (Isabella) are still extant, and exact information is particularly 
desired. You will be good enough to investigate this subject, and report 
to me at your earliest opportunity ; and the results to be obtained from 
the investigation of any other similar ruins and relics will add greatly to 
the interest of the Columbian Department." 

In order that I might be "instructed" fully, and not 
go astray from lack of good counsel, I was fumishedj 



THE COMMISSIONER'S MISSION TO CUBA. 129 

with lengthy "instructions " from the Smithsonian In- 
stitution, the Fisheries Department, the Zoological, and 
Agricultural, and finally, the Secretary of State sent 
me letters to all the Consuls in my domain, one letter to 
each. They read as follows : 

Washington, January, 1891. 

To Esq., 

Consul of the United States at 

My Dear Sir: — I take pleasure in introducing to you Mr. 
Frederick A. Ober, who, by the President's direction, has been desig- 
nated as Special Commissioner for the purpose of interesting the Gov- 
ernment and people of to participate with the United States in the 

commemoration of the Discovery of America by Columbus, by holding 
at the city of Chicago, in the State of Illinois, an Exposition of Arts, 
Sciences, Manufactures, and the products of the Mine, Soil and Sea. 
Mr. Ober will acquaint you with the general instructions he bears, and will 
consult with you as to the most convenient arrangement for successfully 
accomplishing his mission. You will, by your advice and counsel, and 
in every proper way, aid Mr. Ober in securing the appointment of Com- 
missioners to represent the Government of at the proposed Exposi- 
tion, and in interesting the people of that colony in presenting such a 
display as will fully and fitly illustrate its resources, industries, and pro- 
gress in civilization. Confidently expecting your cordial co-operation 
in the furtherance of Mr. Ober's mission, I am, my dear sir, 

Very truly yours, 




From the Director-General I had received, handsomely 
engraved on parchment, a "commission" for each of 
the Governments within my province, and as there were 



130 



IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 







CATHEDRAl. STA. MARIA DE LA CONCEPION. —HAVANA, CUBA. 

ten of these, all told, I was well provided. My chief occu- 
pation, on rainy days, was the reading of my "Instruc- 
tions," and my chief concern was, how to get rid of my 
numerous "commissions," which, wherever permissible, 
I hung up on the walls of the different consulates. 



THE COMMISSIONER'S MISSION TO CUBA. 131 

My first field of operation was Cuba, which I reached 
by the new route via Florida, taking the Plant Line 
steamer at Tampa, and going direct to Havana. There 
I engaged rooms at the Hotel Inglaterra, but after a 
week of discomfort removed to a large boarding-house, 
or Casa de huespedes, on the Prado, near the Hotel 
Pasaje. 

I lost no time in calling on our Consul-General, to 
whom I had two letters ; one personal, the other ofificial. 
He recognized the official letter, and one day took me 
to see the Captain-General, when I had an opportunity 
to initiate my work for Chicago. The Captain -General 
received me pleasantly (being a Spaniard he could not 
do otherwise), assured me that he appreciated the honor 
conveyed in the President's invitation, and also in the 
fact that the Commissioner had brought it. to Cuba 
first of all the islands assigned him, and promised his 
hearty co-operation. 

Some ten days passed by before he showed any signs 
of co-operating, and I was beginning to get impatient, 
although I had filled my time by writing articles for the 
newspapers, and had excited an interest in the Exposi- 
tion which I did not allow to flag during my stay, but 
stimulated to the best of my ability. But when the 
announcement did come from His Excellency, the Cap- 
tain-General, that he had appointed local Commissioners, 
the list he sent me showed that he had given the sub- 
ject deep thought and consideration. It showed, also, 
that he had evidently intended to do the "right thing " 
by all the distinguished gentlemen of the island, and 
had included nearly everybody of importance on the 



132 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

list, as the grand total was twenty-nine. To this num- 
ber he afterward added six provincial Commissioners, 
making thirty- five in all, including men from every 
rank and profession, but especially prominent were the 
ornamental members; for there were two Marquesses^ 
and fourteen Exccllentissiinos. 

It promised to be, I feared, rather "top-heavy" for 
active work; but that was now a matter beyond my 
control, and besides, at the head was a man of energy 
and fortune, Senor Don A. C. Telluria, a Biscayan by 
birth and a self-made man. Through his activity and 
enterprise he had gained control of the lumber trade of 
Havana, and he held high political position, being one 
of the leaders of the conservative party, and president 
of the provincial Deputation. One of the two titled 
members of the commission, the Marquis Duquesne, is 
a native of Cuba, a descendant of the French Admiral 
Duquesne, and one of the wealthiest planters in the 
island. He had latterly taken an active part in politi- 
cal affairs, and had recently been elected deputy from 
Cuba to the Spanish Cortes. The Marquis de Balboa 
was considered one of the leading politicians , a vice- 
president of the Conservative party, a Spaniard, bearing 
a distinguished name and controlling a large fortune; 
he was very popular. 

Of the others, one was a poet, one an engineer, sev- 
eral were cigar-manufacturers, making those celebrated 
brands for which Cuba is famous, one was the rector of 
the university, one Alcalde Municipal, and there were 
four editors of as many influential papers of the city. 
Altogether, it was a commission to be proud of. And I 



THE COMMISSIONER'S MISSION TO CUBA. 



135 



was proud ; but I have never yet learned that they did 
anything except to meet and discuss what they were 
going to do — when they did begin to do anything. 

But it pleased His Excellency to appoint these distin- 
guished gentlemen, it pleased them to be appointed, and 
it pleased me to learn that they were appointed ; and as 
for the newspapers, they went into raptures over the per- 
sonnel of the commission, the wisdom displayed in their 




LES CABANAS. 



selection, and the great results likely to accrue to Cuba 
from this renewed evidence of the friendliness of the 
two countries, etc. , etc. Although rather skeptical as to 
the great results, yet I went to work on these lines laid 
down for me by my chief, keeping the papers informed, 
and through them the people, of the vast enterprise 
going on in the States ; and perhaps I even encouraged a 
little the grandiloquent style of the Exposition articles, 



136 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

as a better policy than to express one's own sentiments. 
At all events (strange as this may appear to a Chica- 
goan), I had first to tell the C^ibanos where Chicago was 
situated before informing them what Chicago was doing ; 
for the average Havanese knows little of the States, 
travel there being confined to the rich, and these only 
being acquainted with the city of New York and Sara- 
toga. The fact of the Exposition being held at Chicago 
was a good thing in one respect: it made foreigners 
acquainted with portions of our country of which they 
would otherwise have remained in ignorance. 

Havana, as every one knows, is delightful during a 
portion of the year, and disagreeable, not to say danger- 
ous, to foreigners through the heated term of the sum- 
mer months. It has been described so often, as well as 
the entire island, in fact, that I shall not waste the time 
of my readers in repetition. Even now, the Morro 
stands at the entrance to the harbor, the bastioned for- 
tifications of the Cabaiias frown above the bay, the 
Prado is the principal promenade, the streets of the 
older portion of the city are as dirty and as narrow as 
ever they were, the gardens of the Captain- General are 
as beautiful, and the alleys of palm-trees as majestic; 
while the people are as various as can be found any- 
where throughout the islands ; for they represent every 
part of Spain, and the mixtures resulting from inter- 
mingling with the American natives. Spanish speech 
and Spanish customs prevail, through the preponderance 
of Spaniards in the body politic, and the constant acces- 
sions to the population of soldiers and the crowds of 
fortune-seekers from the mother-country. 



THE COMMISSIONER'S MISSION TO CUBA. 



137 



There are many fine old families here, but the bulk of 
the new arrivals are from the lower classes of Spain, 
hard-working and thrifty, but ignorant. Cuba, the only 
possession of value to Spain, of the many she once owned 
in America, is being stripped by the rapacious hordes that 
have flocked here, and is almost at the last gasp. 

When I was there, a treaty of reciprocity was being 
negotiated between Spain and the United States, by 
Avhich it was hoped exhausted Cuba would benefit; but 
it is doubtful if she will be accorded more than temporary 
relief, for Spain must raise her revenue somehow, and 




rT==^ -j^ '^... ..,;^f. 



MORRO CASTLE — HARBOR OF HAVANA. 

she has but scant resources outside the Pearl of the 
Antilles, except in Puerto Rico, where likewise the peo- 
ple are groaning beneath their taxes. Before the treaty 
was negotiated, the tax on a barrel of flour was more 
than equal to the original cost in the States, and the mil- 
lers in Spain even made immense profits by importing 
American wheat, grinding it, and exporting it to Cuba. 
Oppression had reached the point where even the Span- 
iards in Cuba, comprising the majority of the merchants 



138 



IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 



and shop-keepers, protested against the exactions, and 
in the air were ominous mutterings of insurrections and 
rebellion. Little hope has Cuba of any successful 
uprising against the Spanish oppressor, who has all the 
forts filled with guns, and all the towns and cities filled 
with soldiers. 

But even should the Cubans ever throw off the yoke 
that has so long been fastened upon them, they would 




AT THE MARKET. 



probably find worse enemies among themselves than in 
the ranks of the foreign foe. For the people are not 
fitted to govern; and there is no hope whatever of 
bettering their condition by a revolution. 

The thing they hope for, yearn after, and desire above 
all things, is annexation to the United States; and in 



THE COMMISSIONER'S MISSION TO CUBA. 139 

order to frighten old Spain at times, this bugaboo of 
annexation is elevated, by imaginative journalists, that 
they may have the pleasure of knocking it down. The 
assumed "hostile attitude" of the Cuban Government 
toward the United States, is almost wholly the work of 
a few newspapers at Madrid ; the intelligent editors of 
Cuban newspapers and the Government officials know 
that it means absolutely nothing. As I frequently 
assured the Cubanos ; the Government of the United 
States has no desire for the annexation of Cuba or Can- 
ada, Mexico or Patagonia. The people of the United 
States are so self-absorbed, having yet a vast territory 
of their own undeveloped, and producing more than 
they themselves can consume, that they seldom cast a 
thought toward even contiguous countries,, except, as in 
the instance of my visit, to invite their neighbors over to 
see them, and to participate in their prosperity. 

But the Cubans themselves cannot understand the atti- 
tude of indifference maintained by " Uncle Sam " toward 
the attractions of their beautiful island; they see only 
the natural beauties of their possession; the thoughtful 
American sees farther; and it may not be amiss to 
mention that any student of history will understand the 
perils of the problem that might be presented for so- 
lution, were annexation to come about. In truth, they 
don't understand the real nature of Uncle Sam. He is 
such an easy-going, good-natured old gentleman, with 
a family increasing rapidly by immigration from the 
Old World, at the rate of half a million yearly, that 
he dreads the responsibility of adopting a "grown-up " 
family of children — and unruly children, at that — 



140 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

suddenly bereft of maternal guidance so salutary as they 
now receive from the fair Queen Regent of Spain. 

There is no question about the interests of Cuba being 
bound up with those of the United States, for, although 
politically united to Spain, she has nothing in common 
with that country, which is sucking out her life-blood 
and injecting a spurious serum in returm. All the trade 
of Cuba belongs to the United States, and her very life 
depends upon our markets for her sugar and tobacco, 
while everything she produces could find sale here. 

The United States does not wish for these islands ; but 
they need the protecting arm of this strong and friendly 
nation around them, and the advanced thinkers of them 
all are looking toward this Government to save them 
from destruction. 

Notwithstanding the great number of soldiers in the 
island, good order is by no means maintained throughout 
the country, and bandits of the worst kind keep por- 
tions of the interior in terror. Scarcely a week passes 
without accounts of their depredations, and notices in 
the papers of the pursuit, rarely the capture, of " los 
bandoleros.'' When captured, they are shot, usually in 
attempting to " escape. " Four bandits were shot in the 
very harbor of Havana, during my visit ; they were lured 
thither by promise of amnesty, and had taken passage 
for Santo Domingo. Just before the time came for 
the steamer to leave, a boat load of policemen went off 
to arrest them ; the bandits drew knives and pistols to 
resist, and all were shot. The police were badly cut 
up, but not a bandit lived to tell the tale. This event 
took place in the jnidst of the crowded shipping, and 



THE COMMISSIONER'S MISSION TO CUBA. 



141 



in open day, but the news did not make much stir in 
town. 

The chief of the bandoleros was one Manuel Garcia, 
who signed himself " el Rey de los Campos," the King 
of the Country. He was exceedingly cunning; long 
escaping capture, though his wife was in jail, and many 
of his companions had been taken and shot. Their 




•/T^ ■ 



ON THE PASEO. 



field of operations was quite near Havana; generally 
between two towns called Giiines and Aguacate, and 
their lairs were in the thick chaparral of the old fields 
and forests difficult for soldiers to penetrate. 

News is rapidly gathered and disseminated in the 
island by the papers, which are numerous; in fact in 
excess of the number required by the population. Fifty 
periodicals of various kinds are published in Havana 



142 



IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 



alone, including illustrated journals of the cheaper 
grade, and a great redundancy of the political stripe. 
The leading dailies are: the Diario de la Marina^ 
founded in 1844; El Pais ^ La Union Constitucional^ and 
La Lticha. A very bright and enterprising little sheet, 
devoted to fashion, art, literature, and especially to the 




taking off of the follies of the day, is El Figaro, which 
has excellent illustrations. 

Art and literature here have not the encouragement 
they deserve, in a land teeming with models of form 
and beauty, and rich in memories of great men and 
great deeds. The only library, the Biblioteca, is scantily 
supplied with books, and most of these were donated 



THE COMMISSIONER'S MISSION TO CUBA. 143 

by private individuals; but there is a School of Arts, 
under the direction of Senor Melero, which, though in 
great need of money for the purchase of casts, etc., is 
in a flourishing condition. I visited it quite often, be- 
ing charmed with the courtesy of the director, and 
entertained by the wit of his assistant. I was allowed 
to inspect the school, one day, and was surprised at the 
number of bright and alert young ladies, enthusiasti- 
cally working at their tasks. I could not but notice, as 
I looked behind the easels, that they did not confine 
their efforts entirely to the adorning of their canvases, 
but that each one had a tiny box of powder at hand, 
which was brought into requisition whenever its fair 
owner thought her complexion needed a little touch- 
ing up. But I am sure this is the only vanity those 
charming Cubanas have, for they are the sweetest most 
amiable, brightest and loveliest of girls. I recall one 
of the little artists, whom I was sometimes privileged to 
observe on a balcony, and who had a sweet and saucy 
face, lighted up by most wonderful black eyes, and the 
prettiest air imaginable. 

In the convent school of Belem there is a fine collec- 
tion of old books, as well as an attempt to get together 
a museum of the animals, minerals, shells, and other 
natural-history specimens. The church attached is 
■over two hundred years old, and a beautiful structure, 
with magnificent palms in its court. The leading 
scientific society is the Real Academta, in Cuba Street, 
where are fine conchological and mineralogical collec- 
tions. A few celts and implements of the Cuban abo- 
rigines are also shown, and two strange specimens of 



144 



IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 



Indian crania that were found in a cave, imbedded in 
lime rock. The society publishes a bulletin, which is 
eagerly sought as an exchange by the scientific societies 
of the world, and is under the guidance of learned and 
enthusiastic professors. 

I had been anxious for many years to meet one of 
Cuba's famous men, of whom the whole scientific world 




REAL ACAUEMIA- 



had been for nearly fifty years cognizant : Don Felipe 
Poey. My intention was to seek him out at the first 
opportunity ; but another visitor got ahead of me, and 
prevented. The very day of my arrival, seeing an im- 
posing funeral procession pass the Inglaterra, I inquired 



THE COMMISSIONER'S MISSION TO CUBA. 145 

who was SO highly honored, and was told that it was the 
gentleman I was so desirous to meet. Another scien- 
tist, who has devoted fifty years to a study of the orni- 
thology of Cuba, and whose work has made him famous, 
is Dr. Gundlach, whom I had long known by repu- 
tation, and whom I found in a room of the university, 
arranging his collections. Although over eighty years 
of age, fifty of which he had passed in the woods and 
fields, exposed to every hardship, yet he was alert and 
active, remembered me from my book on the Caribbees, 
which he at once produced, and discussed with great 
relish the joys and perils of camp-life in the Tropics. 
Like myself, he had enjoyed immunity from the stings 
and bites of poisonous reptiles and insects, never having 
been bitten by dangerous animals, nor even stung by a 
tarantula. Poey and Gundlach take one back to the 
days of Humboldt and Audubon; and one might do the 
world a favor, if he would write out their travels and 
reminiscences. 

While I was in Havana, I was cheered by a flying 
visit from the chief of the department, under whom 
I was working, Mr. W. Eleroy Curtis, who held the im- 
portant position of assistant to the Director- General 
of the Exposition, and was in close relations with the 
Department of State. He is a gentleman of great and 
varied attainments, formerly a journalist of reputa- 
tion, and has won lasting credit in connection with the 
management of the "Bureau of the American Repub- 
lics." He has visited nearly every portion of the West 
Indies and South America, has written an authorita- 
tive volume on the latter countries, and is thoroughly 



146 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

informed regarding their future and possibilities. A 
man of untiring energy and great executive ability, he 
infused into his subordinates the same spirit of hopeful 
labor with which he himself was animated. The de- 
partment of which he was chief embraced Mexico, the 
West Indies, Central and South America, and was called, 
from the preponderance of people of Spanish origin, the 
Latin-American Department. 

Owing to the fact that I was domiciled in a Jiuespedes, 
he professed to have had great difficulty in finding me, 
and demanded why I was not flying my consular flag. 
I had been provided with a handsome flag at starting, 
and was supposed to keep it flying on the house I might 
happen to be in ; but seeing no other flag in the air, on 
week-days, I had not, my chief thought, sufficiently 
asserted myself. So I ordered Manuel, my servant, 
to hoist the flag on the pole on the roof. The Cuban 
stared at me a moment, and then said respectfully, but 
in surprise : 

" But, Seiior, this is a week-day. " 

" No matter; up with the flag. " 

He took it down from between my rooms, where it 
had done duty as a portiere, and went with it to the 
roof, while I hastened to the Hotel Pasaje, to point it 
out to my chief. We went out on the balcony, expect- 
ing to be refreshed with the sight of the glorious stars 
and stripes floating above a Spanish boarding-house; 
but casting our eyes in that direction, to our horror we 
saw it hung up Union down. I ran over and corrected 
that error, and all day long I saw the passers-by look- 
ing wonderingly at my flag, and little groups collect, 



THE COMMISSIONER'S MISSION TO CUBA. 



147 



evidently lost in admiration. But at nightfall I received 
a message from the Consul, saying that there had been an 
inquiry as to the meaning of the new Commissioner in 
flying his flag on a week-day. And it appears that no 
other flag was floating in the city, as the Spanish only 
fly their bunting on Sundays and holidays, when the 
Anglo-Saxons take theirs in. 




A BIT OF OLD HAVANA. 



VII. 



NORTH COAST OF CUBA TO HAITI. 




P^ 



PLACING myself 
in communica- 
tion with the Commis- 
sioners appointed by 
the Captain-General, 
I had the great pleas- 
ure of daily inter- 
course with some of 
the most polished and 
highly-educated gen- 
tlemen of Havana, 
that city so noted for 
its talented and cour- 
teous citizens. 

I found, as already 
stated, a large number of newspapers, employing the 
highest class of journalistic talent, and while I was in 
Havana the columns of these papers were always open 
for announcements regarding the Exposition. 

Keeping ever in mind the purpose of my Government — 
to fully illustrate the history of the discovery, and so far 

U8 






ROYAL PALMS. 



NORTH COAST OF CUBA TO HAITI. 149 

as possible the growth and development of the West 
Indies, and secure everything valuable pertaining to the 
period of discovery and conquest — I was always on the 
lookout for things Columbian. Cuba, as we know, was 
not circumnavigated until after the death of Columbus, 
and the first settlement was not attempted until the 
year 15 ii, when a Spaniard, Velasquez, sailed from 
Santo Domingo, with four vessels and three hundred 
men, having as companions two who became more fa- 
mous than he — Cortez and Las Casas — and landed on 
the south coast, at a port called Las Palmas, near the 
present Guantanamo. The year following, Baracoa was 
founded on the north, and, in 15 15, Santiago de Cuba, 
whence, says the Cuban chronicler, Cortez sailed to his 
career in Yucatan and the conquest of Mexico. Between 
1540 and 1550, there were six towns in Cuba: Santiago, 
Baracoa, Bayamo, Prince's Port, Espiritu Santo and 
Havana. 

The capital of Cuba was founded in 15 19, and the 
spot where the first mass was celebrated, beneath the 
wide-spreading branches of a silk-cotton-tree, is now 
indicated by a small structure called the teinplete\ in 
front of which is a bust of Columbus, and within three 
large paintings of great interest. It has been erro- 
neously stated that Columbus landed here; but the first 
landing at Havana occurred thirteen years after his 
death. There are no authentic relics of him here, but 
there is a statue in the court of the palace, and a fine 
portrait in the hall-of-sessions of the city council. There 
is an inscription on it, stating that the original from 
which it was painted came from the island of Santo 



150 



IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 



Domingo, and that this one was sent by the Duke of 
Veragua, in 1796. In the same hall is an excellent 
painting of the landing of the Pilgrims, of Cortez burn- 
ing his ships at Vera Cruz, with portraits of Alfonso XII. 




'^^■f-^/^, 



V-.- 



%\ 



SELLING PLANTS IN HAVANA. 



and Fernando VII., while in the Captain-General's audi- 
ence-room are portraits of all the captain-generals from 
the year 1777. 

Most famous of all the relics claimed to be possessed 
by Havana are the alleged remains of Columbus, in the 
old cathedral. A full account of their removal hither 
will be found in a later chapter of this book, as well as 
a discussion of their authenticity. Pending the decision 



NORTH COAST OF CUBA TO HAITI. 151 

of competent judges, my chief thought it as well to have 
all the proofs in the case at hand when the Exposition 
should open ; I therefore procured a cast of the tablet 
erected over the remains, and sent it to Washington. 
This tablet is afifixed against the wall at the right of 
the altar, and has upon it a well-carved bust, and the 
following inscription : 

" Oh! Rest OS e imagen del grande Colon! 
Mil siglos diir ad guar dados en la nrna^ 
Y en la renieinbranza de nuestra nacion.'" 

This may be freely paraphrased : 

" O, grand Columbus ! 

In this urn enshrined 

A thousand centuries thy bones shall guard, 

A thousand ages keep thine image fresh, 

In token of a nation's gratitude." 

The cast of the tablet was shipped to Washington, 
and a contract was made with a local sculptor to repro- 
duce a remarkably fine statue of " Columbus in Chains, " 
in the Biblioteca, sent there from Barcelona. 

Thus, by bringing to the notice of the world the odd 
ends of historical productions, and half-forgotten facts 
of valuable history, and in calling attention to the scenes 
of occurrences that once enlisted the attention of all the 
civilized inhabitants of the globe, the directors of the 
Exposition have placed themselves upon a plane far 
removed from prejudice and local traditions. 

Cuba played an important part in the conquest of 



152 



IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 



America, and cannot be ignored in the study of our his- 
tory. In that subjugation there were four centers of 
conquest and colonization . 

First: Haiti, from 1492 to about 15 15, whence was 
explored the entire chain of the Antilles: Cuba, Puerto 
Rico, Darien, Florida and the Spanish Main. Within a 
generation the fortunes of Haiti (or Santo Domingo) 




PLAZA DE ARMAS, HAVANA. 



had sunk to the lowest point, and in the early years of 
the sixteenth century its colonists were eager to embark 
in any enterprise leading out to the discovery of other 
fields. 

Second: Darien, in the year i5i3,became another nu- 
cleus of adventurous spirits. From its mountains Vasco 
Nuiiez de Balboa, first of all Europeans, saw the great 



NORTH COAST OF CUBA TO HAITI. I53 

Southern Sea, and here began those explorations that 
eventually led to the discovery of Peru. 

Third: Cuba, from 15 13 to 1540, became the pivotal 
point of explorers. Remnants of the shattered forces 
of the various unfortunate adventurers in Darien and 
Panama straggled to Cuba, and from their reports re- 
sulted Yucatan, Mexico, and the further exploitation of 
Florida. A gallant hidalgo of Cuba, who had come 
over from Santo Domingo with Velasquez, Hernandez de 
Cordova, joined with him a troop of men from Haiti 
and Darien, and sailed on an expedition, disastrous to 
himself, but which led to the discovery of Yucatan. 
His pilot was the celebrated Alaminos, who as a boy 
was with Columbus, and he sailed in 15 17. The next 
year a more successful expedition was sent out by 
Governor Velasquez, under command of one Grijalva, 
which went beyond the Coast found by Cordova, and 
brought back treasures of gold. 

Fourth : In this manner was ushered in the closing act 
of the great drama, the discovery of Mexico, by Her- 
nando Cortez, in the year 1519. Governor Velasquez, 
instead of giving the command of this second and largest 
venture to Grijalva, who had shown himself fully com- 
petent to conduct it, "at length, after having seriously 
considered it, pitched upon the man who gave him cause 
to repent, and made his life weary, " says the old histo- 
rian. With the affairs of Cortez we have nothing further 
to do; we know the sequel: the conquest of Mexico 
and the further extension of the dominions of Spain. 
Fortunately, a hardier people and more warlike op- 
posed the Spanish oppressors in Mexico than in the 



154 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

West Indies ; and to this is owing their preservation to 
this day. It was in July of the same year, 15 19, that 
the first ship from New to Old Spain made the voyage 
through the Bahama Channel, to avoid falling into the 
hands of Velasquez, as it carried the rich and golden 
treasures sent by Montezuma to the king of Spain. 
The fourth center of conquest was, therefore, Mexico ; 
whence New Mexico (by Coronado), Honduras, Guate- 
mala, the Pacific Coast and Nicaragua. 

But these adventures carry the field of action beyond 
our ken, for we have to do only with the first great 
voyages that opened the way for them. 

We have followed the adventurous Spaniards on their 
first voyage to these shores, sailing with them through 
the Bahama chain, and finally reaching the north coast 
of Cuba. With my readers' permission, I will now 
return to orir ghostly companions, whom in the fourth 
chapter we left on the eve of landing, and allow them 
to conduct us yet farther along the course of their 
voyagings. 

Leaving Havana about the middle of March, I fol- 
lowed along the very route pursued by Columbus after 
he had landed on the shores of Cuba. It was difficult 
to tear myself away from the numerous attractions of 
the quaint old city and its fascinating people ; but my 
mission had practically been accomplished, the Com- 
missioners were actively at work, or about to begin, the 
press had already published an elaborate presentation 
of the plans of the Exposition, and my further stay 
could not result in any adequate reward. It was my 
intention to return ; but the field assigned me was such 



ililiB'' 



^ 
\ti 




NORTH COAST OF CUBA TO HAITI. 157 

a vast one, with desultory and infrequent communica- 
tion between the various islands, that I got entangled in 
the insular labyrinth far to the south, and never recovered 
my original route. 

Although my official duties left me little time for 
recreation, or for excursions, yet I made several trips 
into the country; one to the celebrated Toledo sugar 
estate, where all the appliances of modern invention 
are in use for the extraction and crystallization of the 
cane juice, and another to the district of Matanzas. 
Near Matanzas is that most beautiful vale of Paradise, 
the Yumuri Valley, and the celebrated caves of Bella- 
Mar. No words can describe the beauty of Yumuri, as 
seen from the Cumbres, or from the chapel of Monser- 
rate, with its stretches of level plain inclosed within 
steep hills, and its groves and groups of palms. On 
the way thither, one sees the graceful and stately royal 
palm, in ranks and single groups, but to know what 
beauty there really is in this child of the Tropics, one 
should gaze upon the glorious creations of Yumuri. 
They stand out on the ridges ; white and ivory-stemmed 
they rise before you as the foreground of a vista tran- 
scendently lovely ; they linger in memory like the ghosts 
of departed saints. 

At Matanzas you find the best volantes ; and so rough 
is the road that only by means of these lumbering and 
antiquated vehicles can you reach the Cumbres. Con- 
tinuing the volante ride, the caves are reached; their 
fine galleries, rock forms and stalactites will well repay 
the exertion of a descent. Another journey should be 
taken to the Vuelta-Abajo district, if one be interested 



158 



IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 



in tobacco culture, and afterward visit the great factories 
in the capital. 

But all these things are in the guide-books ; our time 
must be employed in exploiting the rarer beauties of 
islands farther on. 

As we have already noted, the coast of Cuba was. 
reached by Columbus the twenty-eighth of October,, 
1492. On landing he found a people, still uncivilized,. 




lUMURI VALLEY, FKOJl HILL OF GUADELOUPE. 



yet in some ways in advance of the natives of the 
Bahamas; they had huts of palm-leaves in the shape of 
pavilions, and were discovered smoking tobacco, which 
plant had been first seen in the possession of an old 
Indian near San Salvador. "At that time it was- 
thought Cuba was the end of the Asiatic continent, and 
then the islands were first called the West Indies, and 
the region the New World." 

The first landing-place in Cuba is a matter of dispute,, 



NORTH COAST OF CUBA TO HAITI. ISO- 

like the first Landfall, but the weight of evidence seems, 
in favor of the port of Jibara, or Gibara (pronounced 
Heebara), on the north coast. The best presentation of 
the subject is in a little book by a Cuban engineer, 
Sr. H. C. Leyva, called ^^ El Primer Viaje de Colofi," the 
" First Voyage of Columbus" — and the evidence there 
given shows conclusively that Jibara was the spot. 

I left Havana one night of storm, when the whole 
sky was weeping, as if in evidence of my own sorrow 
at leaving behind so many pleasant acquaintances. The 
Spanish steamer in which I had passage, the Manuela, 
was stanch, but fearfully dirty; the cabins being filled 
with half-sick men and women, and the decks covered 
with cattle. In fact, the cattle and mules, comprising 
the deck-loads, were penned so far aft that their noses 
almost touched us as we sat at the tables, which were 
spread on deck ; and not all the polite attentions of the 
courteous officers could divert our attention from our 
four-footed shipmates. 

After thirty-six hours steaming we sighted the " Faro 
de Colon," a tall white shaft, with a light, standing out 
from an apparently wild and desolate shore. Entering 
the mouth of a wide river, an hour's slow steaming took 
us to a very broad bay, with two blue mountains distant 
in the southwest. Lying against the gentle slope of a 
low hill are perhaps a hundred stone buildings, compris- 
ing the sad-looking town of Nuevitas, the port of the 
inland city, Puerto Principe. The streets are merely 
water- worn tracks up the hillside, and the general air of 
the town is that of desolation and decay. 

The second day took us into Jibara, at daylight. This 



160 



IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 



port the later historians have accepted as the true Cuban 
landing-place of Columbus. The approach to it is most 
picturesque, with numerous detached mountains rising 
above green forests and hills. The bay is open, yet 
somewhat sheltered, and its relative position to the isl- 
ands of the mid-Bahamas is such that it would be very 
likely to receive the boats of Columbus as he was coming 




MOUNTAINS OF JIBARA. 



down from the northeast. The waves that break upon 
the coast outside are white-crested and dangerous ; but 
inside there is shelter and a cheerful prospect. 

At present, the town of Jibara is in that half -ruined 
state presented by so many of the settlements of Cuba, 
harassed by the revolutionists of recent years. A high 
wall extends around the inland portion, with very pretty 
towers here and there, built as %, defense against the 



NORTH COAST OF CUBA TO HAITI. 161 

insurrectionists. There is little soil, the rock is calcare- 
ous, the vegetation is tropical, and the general aspect 
forlorn. There is a little square, a small church, an 
excellent casino and theater, but no private houses of 
importance. Off the harbor lie four great hills, or 
mountains, known as the Silla de Jibara, Cerro Colo- 
rado, Loma del Puiial, and Cerro Yabazon. These are 
conspicuous landmarks, and attracted the attention of 
Columbus on his approach, as stated in his journal. 

Here the steamer took on another load of cattle, and 
I had my first view of the method of loading. A lighter 
comes alongside, makes fast, and then a rope is thrown 
down from the steamer's deck. One end of this rope 
is attached to the steam hoisting winch; at the other is 
a running noose. The noose is thrown over the horns 
of an unfortunate ox or bull, the winch is started to 
tighten the noose, and then goes ahead at full speed, 
hoisting the unhappy animal into the air. Sometimes 
there are two animals in the same noose, and the tortures 
they undergo cannot be imagined, as the rope draws 
around their horns, tightens into the hides, and the 
terrible strain of their weight comes upon the heads. 
Hoisted to a height sufficient, they are swung in mid- 
air over the deck and dropped heavily upon the planks, 
where they lie stunned for a while, or gather themselves 
up with an air of stupefaction. Altogether, the process 
is horrible and cruel in the extreme; but the Cubans 
think nothing of it, and have loaded cattle in this way 
for many years. 

Here, as everywhere in Cuba, Spanish misrule is ruin- 
ing the people, and Spanish soldiers are devastating the 



162 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

land like a curse of grasshoppers and locusts. The last 
revolution brought the people to poverty, and they can- 
not recover; there is not a plantation within range of 
the eye, except dry fields of Henequen, or Sisal hemp. 

Away down to the southeast, lies the port of Baracoa, 
which we reached one morning, entering its beauti- 
ful harbor at daylight. This port was specially com- 
mended by Columbus, who found it as he coasted the 
Cuban shores, and whose vessels were the first to enter 
it ; and it was owing to his glowing reports that it sub- 
sequently became the site of a city. It is situated, says 
the historian, near the eastern extremity of the island, 
"the surroundings presenting an extensive plain gradu- 
ally sloping from the mountains down to the shore, 
intersected by valleys and richly wooded, from which 
streams of water fall into the sea, affording, with all the 
beauties of tropical vegetation, a picture of enchant- 
ment. " This is true to-day ; no lovelier view is afforded 
the traveler in any part of the world, than that of Bara- 
coa as seen from the sea, or from the high hills that 
rise behind it. Palms, majestic and g'raceful, adorn all 
the slopes, and grand mountain forms rise through the 
sea of forest that seems to retain all its virgin freshness 
and primeval majesty. 

The, most conspicuous feature here, and one dwelt 
upon particularly by Columbus in the journal of his 
voyagings, is the great table-topped mountain that rises 
behind the town, and can be seen far out at sea. It is 
still called by its aboriginal name, Yiinque^ and tradi- 
tions cluster thickly around it, the natives averring that 
sometimes, in the morning, the face and figure of an 



NORTH COAST OF CUBA TO HAITI. 



163 



Indian cacique can be traced against its rugged and 
almost perpendicular sides. 

It was either here or at Jibara (but more probably at 
the latter port), that Columbus, thinking he had at last 
arrived at the border-land of the province of the " Grand 
Khan," dispatched an embassy to the fancied potentate, 
with presents and conciliatory messages, which wofully 
miscarried, for there was not any Grand Khan, nor any 



.V 




NORTH COAST OF CUBA. 



city of grand proportions, such as Marco Polo had de- 
scribed, and the Admiral was looking for. But he met 
some Indians different from those hitherto seen, one of 
whom gave him some advice, which it would have been 
well if he had taken to heart, and he saw some new 
things of interest. Among others, a strange animal, now 
extinct, called afterward by the Spaniards the ' ' dumb 
dog," and which was highly prized by the aborigines. 
" Ye Dumme Dogge," says Petrus Martyr, in his 



164 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

history, first published in English in 1555, "is found 
in the islands lately discovered, and whose inhabitants 
g-o naked ; and for scarceness of children sacrifice dogges, 
which they nourish as well for that purpose as we do 
Connies. These dogges are dumme and cannot barke, 
having snoutes like unto foxes." 

This " dumb dog" was. Dr. Gundlach thinks, a rac- 
coon, but I am inclined to believe it a species of animal 
now extinct. The aborigines had domesticated another 
mammal, called the Hiitia, and this, with three others, 
now comprises the four indigenous mammals of Cuba. 
There are two species of the Hiitia : the Hutia Poeyii 
(named after Seiior Poey), and the H. Forrier; besides a 
small animal called the Almiqui — th.e Solajium Cuba- 
mis — and the Javalli^ or native wild peccary; also, two 
species of Guinea pig, which have run wild. 

Nearly twenty years elapsed between the discovery of 
Cuba and the founding of the first settlement, but the 
chief cacique of Cuba, Hatuey, had secretly informed 
himself of the movements of the Spaniards and their 
barbarous treatment of the Indians, and warned his 
people against them. Once he called them together, 
and told them that the Spaniards did all their cruel 
deeds for the sake of a great lord they were serving, 
and whom he would show them. Taking some gold 
from a basket, he said, " This is the lord whom they 
serve, and him they follow; they are coming here only 
to seek this lord; therefore, let us make a festival and 
dance before him, to the end that when they come he 
may order them to do us no harm." After they were 
spent with singing and dancing, the chief told them not 



NORTH COAST OF CUBA TO HAITI. 165 

to keep this god anywhere about them, for even though 
he were inside of them, yet would the Spaniards find 
him, and therefore they should cast him into the river ; 
and this they did. 

And it all came about as the poor old chieftain pre- 
dicted, for the Spaniards hounded him and his followers 
through the thickest forests, until all were captured or 
slain, and Hatuey himself was burned at the stake. 
The cruelties of Haiti were enacted over again, and 
but a few years had passed before these harmless chil- 
dren of Cuba were exterminated. In order to get rid 
of the miseries of the mines, whole troops of Indians 
hanged themselves in the forests, and the suicidal ma- 
nia was only checked when one of the overseers went 
among his miners with ropes, and threatened to hang 
himself, also, and thus accompany them into the next 
Avorld, where he would continue the torments he had 
begun in this. 

Nothing remains now of the native population, and 
the only reminders of them are the rude implements of 
warfare and agriculture sometimes discovered. Near 
Cape Maysi, at the eastern end of Cuba, is an immense 
cavern, formerly a dwelling-place of the natives, and 
here have been found some crania apparently petrified. 

Our Consul and Vice-Consul received us with open 
arms at Baracoa, and treated us to a dinner cooked and 
served in the old Cuban style. The port was full of 
"fruiters" loading with bananas for the States; the 
banana trade to-day is enormous and increasing. At 
sunset we were rounding historic Maysi, the cape dis- 
covered and named by Columbus, and following in the 



166 



IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 



very track he took when he left Baracoa and sought out 
the land of Bohio, where the natives told him he would 
find in abundance the gold he desired so much. He 
had reached the Cuban coast the twenty-eighth of 
October, and had lingered along its shores five weeks, 
taking his final departure the fourth of December. Off 




BARACOA. 



the cape he sighted high, cloud-like mountains, and for 
them he steered, crossing the channel between Cuba 
and Haiti. On the seventh of December, 1492, he 
reached the latter island at Point St. Nicholas, near 
which is the celebrated Mole which was recently the 
subject of controversy between the United States and 
Haiti. 



NORTH COAST OF CUBA TO HAITI. 167 

Instead of following directly in the route of Colum- 
bus, our steamer turned to the westward, entering the 
picturesque port of Santiago de Cuba, where our Con- 
sul, Mr. Otto Reimer, who has held office during two 
administrations, entertained us delightfully, until we, 
too, essayed to cross the channel, seeking the Haitian 
shores. Twenty-four hours later we dropped anchor 
in the harbor of Port au Prince, after a very rough 
passage across, and having coasted the fine island of 
Gonaive, which lies off the harbor, covered with dense 
tropical vegetation, and which, though surpassingly rich, 
is almost uninhabited. 

There was a long delay in securing permission to land, 
and it was afternoon when the quay was finally reached, 
there being few boats at hand, and the owners of these 
few lazy and insolent. The boatmen charged three 
dollars for myself and trunks; the porters demanded a 
dollar for taking the luggage to the custom-house, and 
another dollar for carrying it to the hotel. Thanks to 
the intercession of Mr. Bassett, the American minister's 
secretary, my luggage was passed without examination ; 
the colored customs officials were courteous and atten- 
tive, and, my special passport being found all right, I 
was at last free to go where I pleased. 

Securing quarters at the Hotel Bellevue, just outside 
the city and on the Champs de Mars, I hoisted the 
American flag, and devoted the two days left me before 
the sailing of the steamer for Jamaica, to important 
business with the Government. They were busy days, 
but I filled them, and enjoyed my stay exceedingly. 
Going on to Jamaica, I returned seven weeks later, and 



168 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

then accomplished the negotiations which the absence 
of the President had prevented on the first visit. 

My first call, of course, after being settled at the hotel, 
was on the American Minister, the Hon. Frederick 
Douglas, to whom I presented my letters from the Sec- 
retary of State, and my credentials as attache of the 
Haitian Legation. I was introduced by Mr. Bassett, his 
secretary, who was formerly minister here during most 
troublous times. I also met another ex-minister, Mr. 
Thompson, who had preceded Mr. Douglas. He was 
just leaving, having remained behind to improve the 
opportunities afforded one to make money in this rich 
island. Minister Douglas had a very nice country resi- 
dence back of the hotel, but the office of the Legation 
was near the business center of the town. 

There is a small American colony here, and in the 
evening I dined with Mr. Grain, an enterprising Ameri- 
can who introduced the first (and last) street railway 
into the island. As an illustration of the fate of modern 
enterprise, when brought into contact with the Haitian 
barbarism, let this contractor's experience prove a warn- 
ing to all who would seek investments in this republic. 
Mr. Grain secured a contract, put down his rails, im- 
ported improved cars and mules, and ran his street-cars 
regularly from the Mole to the Ghamps de Mars, and 
back. At first, the novelty of the thing "took" with 
the Haitians and all their spare cash, as well as all 
they could borrow — not to speak of their enterprise 
in defrauding conductors — was invested in rides over 
the rails. After a few weeks, however, the novelty had 
worn off, and the street-cars palled upon them; and 



NORTH COAST OF CUBA TO HAITI. 



169 



when a thing palls upon a Haitian, he is not at all slow 
in showing it. It was shown in this instance by ripping 
up the rails and obstructing the track, and the first 
revolution next succeeding, aided by the summer floods, 
completed the work of devastation, so that there now 
remains of this great American enterprise only the 
road-bed and disconnected rails. 

The streets of Port au Prince were as bad as they 
could be before the advent of the street-cars ; but now 




MfiHamMMlM 
IN THE VOLANTE, CUBA. 



they are simply exasperating, for the broken rails stand 
high out of the roads, and twist off the wheels of all 
vehicles with which they come in contact. As though 
the loss of his concession were not enough, it was seri- 
ously proposed, by the Haitian legislators, to force Mr. 



170 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

Grain to take up the fragments of the rails, and restore 
the streets to their original condition. But the irony 
of it all is, that Mr. Grain owns a livery stable, and 
probably loses more wheels from his carriages than all 
the others combined. 

Grain's was the rallying-place of the American con- 
tingent in times of peace, as well as their retreat in 
revolutions, and the holes made by flying musket-balls 
were numerous in the walls. At dinner, that evening, 
the frequent revolutions were alluded to, and my friends 
humorously described their various and numerous 
escapes. Mr. Grain related his last adventure, when 
the chair he sat in was shot from under him, but said 
he was unable to describe his sensations, the situation 
was so complicated. Mr. Bassett mentioned casually 
that the last time he was shot at one bullet passed in front 
of him and another behind him, and a ludicrous feeling 
of uncertainty possessed him as to whether he had best 
go ahead, retreat, or fall flat on the ground. But all 
agreed that, whatever troubles the Haitians might have 
among themselves, they did not really intend any harm 
to the foreigner. The only danger lay in getting hit 
by a bullet intended for somebody else; but, again, as 
the Haitian soldiers never did hit what they aimed at, 
it was generally the ball intended for somebody else 
that did the execution. 

Although the Haitians are always fighting among 
themselves, yet it is the universal opinion that the 
foreigner is fairly safe, whether in city or country; the 
foreign residents travel about unreservedly, taking the 
"revolutions" as a matter of course, and interfering 



NORTH COAST OF CUBA TO HAITI. 171 

with nobody. This sense of security in the intervals of 
peace was illustrated the first night I was in Haiti, by 
the departure of one of our number, about ten o'clock, 
for his country house in the mountains, some seven 
miles away. The night was very dark, the roads un- 
utterably bad, and the route lay near a district in which 
resided some of the worst Voudou people in those parts ; 
yet our friend went off unattended, as though merely go- 
ing across the street, and reappeared next morning, to 
repeat the ride again that night. The British Consul, 
Mr. Arthur Tweedy, and his brother, resided for a long 
time in the hills above the capital, going and coming 
daily, but never experiencing any trouble except during 
the revolutions. They took me up to their charming 
retreat, one evening, and I enjoyed a cool night, a 
superb view of the city and harbor, and experienced 
the delights of an English hospitality with Haytian 
accessories. 

By the Haitian constitution, no foreigner can own 
any realty in the island ; and if he would acquire real 
estate, he must do it through a third party, resident 
here ; in other words, a black or colored man. It is rather 
refreshing to find a country where the white man has 
no rights, and has to go down on his knees for favors 
from his colored brother. It may be in the nature of a 
merciful dispensation of Providence that the black man 
has made it so difficult that the white man may not 
desire to come here; for certainly no one could ask a 
worse punishment for an enemy than enforced residence 
in Haiti. Still, all the foreign trade is in the hands of 
foreigners — chiefly English, French and a few Ameri- 



172 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

cans; and the fortunes some of them roll up would be 
enormous — if they were permitted to get away with 
them. But it usually happens that just as the merchant 
has accumulated a snug little fortune, an incendiary 
fire sweeps his warehouses out of existence, or his goods 
are plundered by rival revolutionists, and he has to be- 
gin again the weary life-in-death existence here. The 
amenities of life are few, aside from a tropical, equable 
climate, and the pleasure found in beautiful scenery. 
The best citizens here have instituted a fine club, the 
Cercle, at which they can lunch, play billiards and 
drink West Indian decoctions. I was introduced there, 
and found delightful gentlemen, the president being 
the richest man in town. 

Several papers are published in the capital, the live- 
liest being Le Peupk^ the editor and proprietor of which 
speaks and writes English, and is the father of nineteen 
children. Journalism is not without its reward in Haiti, 
and the road to eminence is always open to young men 
of enterprise and ability. 




VIII. 



THE HAITIAN CIVILIZATION. 



/ 






^^ 




...a^Hu^HI 






i^ 


mm 




L 1 


i 





T 



'HE Hon. Fred- 
erick Douglas, 
our Minister to Haiti , 
at the time of my 
visits, is a celebrity of 
more than national 
reputation. Born a 
slave, yet his great na- 
tural force and talents 
won for him a position 
that entitled him to 
the leadership of his 
race. It interested me 
greatly to hear his 
reminiscences of the 
exciting times of anie- 
bellimi days, and of his 
intercourse with such 
famous men as Web- 
ster, Winthrop, and the leaders of the anti-slavery move- 
ment. Though seventy-four years old at the time I 

173 



FKEDEKICIv DOUGLAS. 



174 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

met him, yet his form was erect, his memory of events 
that had long- since transpired was wonderful, and he 
contemplated writing out his recollections of the stirring 
scenes through which he had passed. He recalled with 
affection the memory of his friends in New Bedford, 
when he made his first "break" for freedom, and 
detailed his experiences, and his reception as an orator, 
moved by the wrongs done to his people. As he went 
with me to visit all the officials here, including those 
high est in power, not omitting the President, I had good 
opportunity for comparing this man who had risen to 
eminence through the force of innate ability and in- 
tegrity, with those who represented the best products of 
the Haitian civilization. 

Before my arrival, under date of March 2, Mr. Doug- 
las had addressed a note to the President, introducing 
the subject of the Exposition, and preparing the way 
for my invitation. This note was responded to by the 
'Minister of Foreign Affairs, reciprocating the sentiments 
of our Minister, and giving assurances that it was the 
desire of Haiti to participate, but intimating that, in 
the absence of the President, who was in the interior, 
nothing could be done before his return. 

I called on the Minister of Foreign Affairs, M. Firmin, 
in company with Mr. Douglas, Mr. Bassett, and our 
Vice-Consul. M. Firmin was a black man of great 
ability, affable, intelligent, and conversant with four lan- 
guages. I met also the son of the President, a young 
man of excellent address, of a blue-black complexion, 
like his father, and, later, was introduced to the daughter 
and granddaughter of Soulouque, a famous ex-President 



THE HAITIAN CIVILIZATION. 



175 



of Haiti, who were living- quietly here. They, too, had 
the African features and woolly head, and the easy 
manners of those who had been in position. 

M. Firmin reiterated his assurances of esteem, and 
his interest in the Exposition, promising to do all he 
could when the proper time should arrive; but it was 
decided that I had better go on to Jamaica, and return 
when the President should have arrived. 

I returned to Port au Prince the middle of May, and, 
in accordance with the understanding with Minister 
Douglas, was presented 
to the President, who 
had arrived during my 
absence. The national 
palace is situated on the 
seaward side of the 
Champs de Mars; it is 
an unpretentious build- 
ing of brick and wood, 
rambling and mis- 
shapen. Ragged sol- 
diers, barefooted and 
dirty, make a pretense 
of guarding this abode 
of authority, and one is 
ushered through a lower 
hall, adorned with Gat- 
ling guns and statuary of ante-negro times, into an 
upper saloon with little furniture and of drear aspect, to 
await the coming of " His Excellency. " After a while 
he appeared^ the renowned Hyppolite, the present 




IIYPPOLITE. 



176 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

President of Haiti, the conqueror from the North and 
actual Dictator. I was presented in due form, my cre- 
dentials and my mission were recited by the Minister's 
secretary, and I was then launched upon the long- 
expected interview. 

As had been anticipated, "His Excellency" raised 
many objections to the proposed participation of Haiti 
in the forthcoming Exposition ; and, in truth, it was not 
an auspicious mioment for negotiation, owing to the very 
recent attempt at the acquisition of Mole St. Nicolas, 
and the bad odor of diplomatic failure attendant thereon, 
consequent upon bad faith on one side or the other. 
But, ignoring the fact that the President was nursing a 
feeling of irritation toward our Government, and would 
welcome an opportunity for the bestowal of a snub, I 
exerted myself to the utmost to win him over to my 
cause. It was but too evident, as the President observed 
and urged, that Haiti had nothing of consequence to 
send us, and she would run the risk of appearing ridicu- 
lous in comparison with other and greater Powers ; but 
that was not the view of the question I chose to enter- 
tain. My mission was to get her to accept the invita- 
tion of our Government, whether she had an exhibit to 
send or not; and I determined to work to that end, 
keeping in mind the moral aspect of the matter, and 
allowing the subsequent details to settle themselves. 

Consequently, when these objections of a purely 
negative character came up, and the Chief Magistrate 
arrayed them in order, presenting (as I had to confess 
to myself) a formidable appearance, I did not combat 
them ; I merely soared above them. Pluming my wings 



t 
M 



THE HAITIAN CIVILIZATION. 



177 



for a lofty flight into the empyrean (at the same time 
feeling that the slightest mistake might precipitate a 
lofty tumble), I looked His Excellency straight in the 
eye, and raised him off his metaphorical feet. In a 
word, I appealed to his patriotism, his amor patrice^ his 
pride, his ambition ; I reviewed the glorious history of 
conquest, beginning with the immortal deeds of the 




HYPPOLITE AND STAFF. 



illustrious Toussaint L'Ouverture, and tracing the ad- 
vance of liberty along the thorny paths of virtue, down 
to the present day. I will confess to some misgivings 
when I came to mention the doings of Toussaint's suc- 
cessors; but by that time I had really worked myself 
into an oratorical frenzy. Magnanimously ignoring 
their various misdeeds, I concluded with an impassioned 



178 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

appeal to the sons of Haiti to remember the glorious 
triumphs of their ancestors, to recollect that their island 
was now the cynosure of all eyes, and that the world 
was watching, with bated breath, their treatment of the 
problem of self-government. In short, I urged them to 
send to Chicago an exhibit that should illustrate, not 
alone the vast natural wealth of Haiti, not alone her 
material resources, but above all these to hang out the 
banner of progress, and to show to the waiting world 
the advanced position she had taken in the galaxy of 
republics. With outward calm (though not without 
some inward trepidation) I awaited the President's re- 
sponse. It came, at last. Being a man of intelligence, 
who had sometimes aroused his own people to action in 
somewhat the same style, he was, perhaps, at first a 
little suspicious of my perfervid appeal ; but a glance at 
my hopeful countenance reassured him. He acknowl- 
edged that my views were novel, and that he had not 
entertained them before; but that they were worthy 
of consideration, and he would submit them to his 
cabinet. 

That was all I could do, and I retired, next day sailing 
for Santo Domingo ; but soon after I had the satisfac- 
tion of hearing that his recommendation was adopted, 
and that the sum of twenty-five thousand dollars had 
been appropriated toward Haiti's participation in the 
Exposition. And, to show that it was not, as some of 
the enemies of the republic averred, an appropriation 
to be " appropriated" by the enterprise of some greedy 
politician, the following notice from a newspaper of 
Chicago, before this book went to press, is submitted: 



THE HAITIAN CIVILIZATION. 179 

" Chicago, January 3, 1893. —Of all the foreign powers taking part in 
the World's Fair, the little republic of Haiti was first to complete its 
building, yesterday. It was the ninetieth anniversary of the indepen- 
dence of the is] and, the Haitian pavilion being dedicated in the presence 
of a small audience composed of Exposition officials and colored citi- 
zens of Chicago. Frederick Douglas, ex-minister of Haiti, delivered 
the principal address, at the request of President Hyppolite. Director- 
General Davis responded. The exercises were held in the main hall of 
the building." 

Since I recommended the Haitians to make an ex- 
hibit illustrative of their advance on the road to civiliza- 
tion, perhaps I cannot do less than present herewith 
a statement of their actual status, as viewed by ac- 
knowledged authorities, and supplemented by my own 
observations. x. 

The island of Haiti is one of the richest regions, in 
natural resources, on the face of the globe. God has 
endowed it with everything necessary for the mainte- 
nance of man, and in addition has bestowed upon it 
blessings, in the way of climate, scenery, and position, 
that render it an earthly paradise. _- 

The greatest length of the island of Santo Domingo 
is some four hundred miles, its breadth over one hun- 
dred and thirty, and of this the portion known as Haiti 
occupies the western third. It is well-watered, with 
rich soil, beautiful scenery, tropical climate, and entirely 
in possession of the blacks. 

The capital and largest city is Port au Prince. It is 
situated at the bottom of a deep and picturesque bay, 
facing west, and contains some twenty thousand inhabi- 
tants. Its natural advantages are many, biit its social 
and intellectual advantages are conspicuous by their 



180 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

absence. Says a recent resident, one who was com- 
pelled to live for years in the city : 

" It may bear away the palm of being the most foul- 
smelling, dirty, and consequently fever-stricken city, in 
the world. Every one throws his refuse before his 
door, so that heaps of manure and every species of 
rubbish encumber the way." 

As to the streets, they do not seem to have been 
mended for the last hundred years. The Haitians have 
a saying, '■'•Bon Dien gate li ; bou Dieii pare li" — God 
spoilt them, and God will mend them. As the " bon 
Dieu " only helps those who help themselves, and as the 
Haitians have no desire to help themselves in the way 
of making or repairing their roadwaj^s, their condition 
is frightful beyond description. ' ' The gutters are open, 
pools of stagnant and fetid water obstruct the streets 
everywhere, and receive constant accessions from the 
inhabitants using them as cesspools and sewers. There 
are few good buildings in town, and none in the country, 
the torch of the incendiary being constantly applied, 
and no encouragement offered to rebuild, through pro- 
tection of the Government or local enterprise. Build- 
ings destroyed by earthquake or fire are never replaced, 
and the nearest approach to rebuilding is seen in the 
slab shanty leaning against the ruined walls of a large 
structure demolished. " Fires are continually occurring, 
and are nearly always regarded as the precursors of 
outbreaks, or revolutions. During my brief stay sev- 
eral fires occurred, the premonitory symptoms of the 
great uprising that resulted in the terrible massacre of 
May, 1 89 1. The town is more than half in ruins, but 



THE HAITIAN CIVILIZATION. 



181 




ABANDONED ESTATE — COAST OF HAITI, 

the people residing here are a happy-go-lucky lot, good 
natured, self-sufficient, regarding Haiti as the center of 
the universe, and their capital as a second Paris. 

During the French occupation, or until a hundred 
years ago, there were large estates on the island, and 
the planters derived immense wealth from an intelli- 



182 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

gent cultivation of the soil; but now there is not an 
estate under cultivation that produces more than enough 
sugar-cane to supply its miserable proprietors with rum. 
To the vast and numerous coffee plantations in the hills, 
the negro laid claim as conqueror, and these estates 
have been the chief source of Haitian revenue ever 
since. The negro peasantry in the mountains bring 
the produce of these plantations down to the cities, 
where it is taken in hand by the political workers who 
hold the customs and the bulk of the receipts appro- 
priated. As the only revenue is derived from the cus- 
toms at the ports, and as there are no other taxes, the 
most desirable offices in the gift of the Government, 
are those that enable the occupants to get their hands 
on the exports and imports. It is no crime to steal 
from the State, they say; indeed, it has passed into a 
proverb that passes, current everywhere: Prendre V ar- 
gent de Vetat^ ce n' est pas voter.'' 

The office of collector of the port is regarded with 
highest favor, and if the incumbent does not collect 
enough for himself in a reasonably short time, he is re- 
moved, or "promoted," and another given a chance. 
This is their chief motive for the numerous revolutions: 
not the love of country, which they so frequently vaunt, 
but the desire to have a share in the spoliation of their 
island. Revolutions have occurred with rapidity and 
regularity for the past eighty years, and a narrative of 
the doings of the various black, yellow, or coffee-colored 
"Presidents" who have foisted themselves upon the 
people, and seized the spoils of their industry, would be 
as uninteresting as unprofitable. With here and there 



THE HAITIAN CIVILIZATION. 



183 



an exception, their only aim has been to enrich them- 
selves ; and it may be stated without fear of refutation, 
that there is not the shadowiest semblance of true patri- 
otism in the island of Haiti ; if there is, it does not 
appear in the acts of those in official life. 

The present President, Hyppolite, has held office 
longer than many of his predecessors, having come 
down from the north of Haiti a few years ago and 
ousted Legitime, who was 
then the ruler, but who now 
languishes in Jamaica, await- 
ing an opportunity for rein- 
statement. Jamaica, in fact, 
is infested with ex-presi- 
dents and ex-cabinet officers, 
anxiously looking across the 
channel for some sign of dis- 
turbance that will enable 
them to return to their be- 
loved country and more 
beloved positions of inde- 
pendence. Nearly all the 
"revolutions" that have 
appeared so frequently in 
the press, of late, have had 

their inception, as well as their scenes of action, in 
the neutral island of Jamaica. These ex-dignitaries 
and quasi-revolutionists are nearly all well supplied 
with funds, having taken care of themselves when in 
office and "skipped" at an opportune moment. It is 
only as they become impoverished and the necessity 





-iis 



D. F. LEGITIME. 



184 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

for labor stares them in the face, that their patriotism 
asserts itself and they see in the present incumbent 
a vampire and a traitor to his country, who is wax- 
ing fat on the sweat and blood of his fellow-citizens. 
Then their indignation at these sufferings of the down- 
trodden and oppressed of Haiti knows no bounds, and 
they issue pronunciavieittos calling upon their fellow 
countrymen to rise in their might and shake off the 
clutch of the oppressor. And if the down-trodden 
fellow-countrymen do rise, and in sufficient strength, 
these revolutionists charter a vessel and hasten to 
Haiti, hovering in the harbor until well assured their 
friends are likely to prove victorious, when they dash 
in boldly and valiantly, just in season to snatch the re- 
ward of the customs. 

It was less than two weeks after my departure from 
Port au Prince, in May, 1891, that the bloodiest out- 
break occurred in the annals of recent Haitian out- 
rages. A body of men marched upon the prison and 
liberated the convicts ; next they attacked the arsenal, 
possessed themselves of arms, and met the Government 
troops ; but they were finally dispersed, retreating upon 
the smallpox cemetery, near the town. They were 
eventually driven to the woods, but many were captured 
and summarily shot, more executions occurring in cold 
blood than in the heat of conflict. The prisoners were 
shot without trial, so it is said, until over two hundred 
were executed, and the name of Hyppolite became a 
stench in the nostrils of the revolutionists. For this 
massacre of his subjects he was blamed without stint, 
by those not cognizant with the circumstances and the 



THE HAITIAN CIVILIZATION. 185 

dangers surrounding him; but the simple truth of the 
matter is, that it was either Hyppolite or the rebels that 
must perish, and the President naturally preferred it 
should be the other party. He may have erred on the 
side of excessive severity; but at all events, there will 
not be so many revolutionists to rise in rebellion next 
time, and the Haitians in Jamaica have since been 
remarkably quiet. 

To show how little attention the foreign residents 
paid to this magsacre that was going on among them, I 
may quote from a letter written me at the time by a 
friend dwelling in ' Haiti, in which he alludes to it as a 
"disturbance/' saying that many summary executions 
took place in the streets, but that, though many inno- 
cent lives were lost, he hoped peace would soon be 
•restored. 
• Founded as it is upon force, with the strongest man 
at the head, nominally as president, but in reality a 
dictator, the Black Republic cannot endure another 
century as it is going now, without calling to it the at- 
tention of the world, and exciting its strongest reproba- 
tion. It is the desire of more than one Government 
that the United States should take this irresponsible 
Island republic in hand and administer to it a salutary les- 
son. Nothing short of extermination, some aver, could 
effect a reform in the Haitian body politic; but as this 
age does not tolerate the radical measures of the olden 
time it is not probable that the present generation will 
experience a reformation. Sir Spencer St. John, who 
was formerly the English Minister-Resident in Haiti, 
and who wrote an exhaustive account of the doings in 



186 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

the Black Republic, says of it, amongst other things 
not complimentary: ''No country possesses greater 
capabilities, or a better geographical position, or more 
varied soil, climate, or production, with magnificent 
scenery of every description; and yet it is now the 
country to be avoided, ruined as it has been by a 




A VIEW FROM THE RESIDENCE OF THF- ENGLISH CONSUL — HAITI. 

succession of self-seeking politicians, without honesty 
or patriotism." And he adds: "I know what the 
black man is, and I have no hesitation in declaring 
that he is incapable of the art of government; and 
to intrust him with framing and working the laws 
for our (English) islands is to condemn them to in- 
evitable ruin. What the negro may become after 



THE HAITIAN CIVILIZATION. 187 

centuries of civilized education, I cannot tell ; but what 
I know is, that he is not fit to govern now. There are 
brilliant exceptions, doubtless, but as a race they are 
incapable." 

He does not deny that the Haitian of the better 
class is well educated, as the wealthy class send their 
children to France, sparing no expense to secure them 
an education. But he declares that they do not benefit 
by these advantages as they should, and that the aver- 
age Haitian is only an American negro with a French 
veneer. 

So many hard things have been thrown at the Haitians, 
that I myself do not feel inclined to join in the attack; 
but truth compels one to admit that there is very little 
visible to the stranger, either in their private or public 
life, worthy of emulation. It would seem, then, that 
the Haitian civilization has not been a brilliant success: 
that, in fact, it has not been advanced any during the 
century that has passed since the expulsion of the 
French and the negro has had the privilege of gov- 
erning himself; but, on the contrary, that it has- 
retrogressed. 

At the time of my visit, the city was practically under 
martial law ; soldiers were camped in the streets, cannon 
and Gatling guns were at every corner, and all life in the 
streets was suspended after dark. No one could pass 
unchallenged; the cries of the sentinels were heard 
on every side throughout the night, with occasional 
reports of firearms by way of emphasis. The soldiers 
composing the Haitian army are the sorriest specimens 
of humanity that were ever put into uniform. They 



188 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS 

are generally barefooted, clad in rags, and many seek 
subsistence by begging through the streets. I have 
been approached many times by these poor beggars, 
asking alms with humble mien, and satisfied with the 
smallest coin. The pay of the rank and file, it is said, 
is only twelve dollars a year, and of even this small 
sum they are sometimes defrauded. The nominal 
strength of the army is some twenty thousand, com- 
posed of general, staff and regimental officers to the 
number of about fourteen thousand, and the remainder, 
privates, who do the fighting and have little chance of 
promotion. Their guns are rusty old rifles, and the 
principal weapon which nearly all carry is the ' ' coco- 
macaque, " a tough stick, with which terrible blows 
can be inflicted. Every man of prominence is called 
"general," and men of this rank are very numerous 
everywhere. The "generals" wear all sorts of uni- 
forms, without reference to their rank, apparently; in 
one group, at Cape Haitian, I saw five brigadiers, each 
one with a coat of different cut and color from that of 
his fellows, but all with long plumes in their cocked 
hats. 

In writing of Haiti, one cannot ignore the fact that 
the masses, especially in the mountains, are steeped in 
the superstition of the African Serpent-worship, or 
Voudism. I saw the objects used in the cannibal cere- 
monies in the museum of the Petit Seminaire, at the 
capital, which had been taken from convicted cannibals, 
who were executed for their crimes. These were: a 
Voudou drum, a tambou, collars of the papa loi^ or 
high priests, etc. ; and these visible reminders of can- 



THE HAITIAN CIVILIZATION. 18& 

nibalism set me to inquiring as to its prevalence in the 
island. 

We must not, however, confound the African Serpent- 
worship, called Voudou, with cannibalism, for the latter 
is an excrescence, or outgrowth of the former. The 
whole island is tainted with the Voudou, but com- 
paratively few of its followers practice the grosser rites. 

It is distinctively derived from Africa, and has been 
in practice ever since the first importation of African 
slaves, or for at least three hundred years. During the 
French occupation it was suppressed to a great extent, 
but at the massacres and after the extermination of the 
white people, it revived in all its* original strength. It 
was then, perhaps, that the horrible practice was intro- 
duced of sacrificing white and colored children; and, 
like tigers that have had a taste of human blood, the 
cannibals still thirst for it with terrible intensity. They 
prowl around the settlements, seeking occasion to ab- 
duct young white and colored children, whom they 
carry to the mountains, fatten, keep until certain days 
appointed for their ceremonies, and then kill and devour. 
The constant and haunting fear overshadowing every 
white mother in Haiti is of these Loup-garous^ or human 
wolves. Nurses are sometimes in league with them, 
and even the grave is made an instrument for their 
horrible designs. 

It is well known that the negroes of the mountains 
are acquainted with the properties of plants as yet un- 
known to the materia inedica^ and with them work won- 
derful cures, as well as evil spells, even apparently 
bringing the dead back to life. So it happens that, 



190 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

when the cannibals are in want of victims for sacrifice, 
they find some means of administering a native narcotic, 
which soon produces coma, and apparent death, to some 
white or colored child, and after it is buried, disinter 
and resuscitate it for their horrid feasts. 

The serpent is the deity of the Voudous, and he is 
represented by a high priest, called the/«/« loi^ and a 
priestess, the viaina loi; meaning the father and the 
mother king. Their commands are absolute, and no 
sectary dare disobey them. In this lies their menace 
to good government, and it is well known that even 
some of the rulers of Haiti have been dominated by 
them. The worship of the serpent is carried on as 
secretly as possible; the sectaries are bound by oaths 
of secrecy, and their incantations take place in the 
night. - The serpent is consulted, through the priest or 
priestess, and the devotees then indulge in dancing 
and song, generally ending in the grossest forms of 
debauchery. 

Thus far, except for the influence exercised by the 
papa and mama loi and the menace to the State of an 
oath-bound order of the most degenerate people, the 
Voudous are not particularly objectionable; but they 
are soon carried away by excess of frenzy, and demand 
a further excitement in the shape of a sacrifice. 

Usually, this offering of propitiation to the serpent is 
in the form of a goat or a cock, always white and spot- 
less. These offerings satisfy the milder members of 
the order, but there are others who will not be content 
without the sacrifice of a child. This human offering 
is called "the goat without horns," and when such a 



THE HAITIAN CIVILIZATION. 



191 



demand is made means are always found for furnishing 
a victim. Verified statements of the occurrences of 
such sacrifices and the subsequent cannibal feasts have 
been made to the authorities, and men and women have 
been shot for their indulgence in them. Within a 
few years an account was published in the leading 
paper of Port au Prince of the arrest of some men and 
women who had carried on a regular business of killing 
people and of selling their "meat" in open market. 
This was in 1885, and a year later the same paper 
makes mention of the arrest and conviction of several 
people who had killed and eaten others, and among the 
Tictims the sister-in-law of the chief. 

But enough has been cited to show that cannibalism 
still flourishes in Haiti, and that it will take more 
vigorous action on the part of the authorities than has 
yet been exercised to extirpate this evil. 









^^ 




L^'- -■ te^BsBS^HM 


^S==^fc^:aJ 


III^B.^ 


5^^^^^^^^ 


^~3iM 



IX. 



THE BUCCANEERS AND THE BLACK KING. 

ADJACENT to the north coast of Haiti, less than 
five miles distant from the harbor of Port de 
Paix, lies the desolate island of Tortuga. It was at one 
time the pirates' rendezvous, the ancient haunt of the 
dreaded buccaneers. 

This small island, called by the Spaniards Tortuga, 
from its resemblance to a sea-turtle, tortnga de mar, 
commands the great sea channel between Cuba and 
Haiti and the water highway to Jamaica. Early per- 
ceiving its importance from a strategic point of view, 
the pirates who had marked the commerce of Spanish 
America for their prey, took possession of and held it 
for many years. 

It had no harbors large enough for the entrance of 
ships, but it abounded in numerous coves and shallow 
bays, while the interior was a vast and tangled forest ; 
the situation was, therefore, all but impregnable. With 
their sentinels on the watch for the richly freighted 
galleons coming up from Panama and the Spanish 
Main, the pirates had the king of Spain's revenues at 
their mercy. Many a million in gold and silver have 

192 



THE BUCCANEERS AND THE BLACK KING 193 

they carried to that wild retreat, and to many a bout 
and carousal have the now desolate crags reverberated. 
Orgies were the order of the night, and murders the 
business of the day, while Spanish wine supplied the 
stimulant, and Spanish gold procured the luxuries of 
the world. 

The discovery of Tortuga was coincident with that of 
Haiti, for Columbus sought shelter from a storm in a 



TOKTUGA — THE PIRATES' PARADISE. 

bay on its southern shore, one night in December, 1492. 
Thirty years later the French, who had been attracted 
to the Spanish acquisitions in America, drew stealthily 
into the Caribbean Sea, and the French corsairs be- 
came annoying. 

In the year 1529, a French squadron was in the 
Caribbean, and an English vessel arrived at Santo 
Domingo. In 1538 (the same year that De Soto 



194 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

arrived at Havana), a protracted and bloody sea-fight 
occurred off that port between a Spanish and a French 
corsair, while in 1541, the year that Orellana sailed 
down the Amazon, the French and English did great 
injury to the Spanish trade; though the West Indies 
were then in decline, while Mexico and Peru were 
yielding stores of gold and silver. 

In 1563, that prince of slave stealers, Sir John Haw- 
kins, brought negroes from Africa to Spanish American 
ports, which he had obtained "partly by the sword and 
partly by other means," and sold them at immense 
profit. Nine years later, in 1572, there came into these 
seas, pillaging and burning. Sir Francis Drake — that 
knightly pirate, who, the year following, from a peak 
in Darien, first saw the great Pacific, the waters of 
which no English keel had ever cleft. 

Succeeding the invasions of these pirates, came an- 
other class of voyagers; the adventurous colonists. 
Another noted name now rises against the widening 
horizon. For, in the year 1585, Sir Richard Grenville, 
wath seven sail, cruised from Dominica to Puerto Rico, 
and thence to Virginia, where he left a colony of one 
hundred men upon the island of Roanoke. The year 
following, Drake, after attacking and capturing Santo 
Domingo and Cartagena, coasted Cuba and Florida, and 
finding the perishing colonists on Roanoke took them 
home to England. The next year came the expedition 
of Mariner White, who, with three vessels and one 
hundred and fifty men, sailed between Dominica and 
Guadeloupe and touched at Santa Cruz. Here the 
sailors were poisoned by the attractive manchineel 



\ 

I 



THE BUCCANEERS AND THE BLACK KING. 195 



apples lying on the sand, as the log-book quaintly says : 
"By eating a small fruit like green apples they were 
fearfully troubled with a sudden burning, also a child 
at the breast had its mouth set in such burning that it 
was strange to see how the infant was tormented for 
the time." On the fourth of July, 1587, they made 
Haiti; on the sixteenth, Virginia, and on the twenty- 
second landed at " Haterack,' where the first child was 
bom. And this first infant born to that ill-fated colony 
of Raleigh's, was Virginia Dare. Thus we note how 
inextricably interwoven are the threads of history in 
this New World, and the intimate connection between 
the sunny isles I am describing and our northern 
•colonies. 

Sir Walter Raleigh, who had long viewed this west- 
ern continent from a distance, at last arrived at Trini- 
dad and ascended the Orinoco, in 1596. Sir Francis 
Drake died the same year, and was buried at sea, off 
Porto Bello. The closing decade of the sixteenth cent- 
ury finds English ships everywhere ploughing West 
Indian waters, and, in 1607, three great names sail across 
our vision as we scan those southern seas. Sir Chris- 
topher Newport, in company with Captain John Smith 
and Bartholomew Gosnold, sighted Martinique, landed 
at Dominica, and in Guadeloupe found a wonderful hot 
spring. "Our admiral. Captain Newport, caused a piece 
of pork to be put in it, which boiled it so in the space of 
lialf an hour, as no fire could mend it." Thence, after 
three weeks among the Caribbees, they sailed by way 
of Nevis, to Virginia, founding the first permanent 
colony on the James. Ten years later, Raleigh again 



196 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

sailed for the Orinoco, in the ill-fated Destiny^ from 
which expedition he returned to be beheaded in the 
Tower. 

And now, after this roundabout digression, pursuing 
those historical personages who had invaded our chosen 
field of action, we return to the little island o£E the coast 
of Haiti; for it was shortly after Raleigh and his com- 
panions had done their work of colonizing that this 
island rose to prominence. 

The English and French colonists were looked upon 
by the Spanish as intruders ; they were ousted on every 
occasion, and, in 1630, a Spanish admiral, Don Frederic 
Toledo, drove them away from the island of St. Kitt's, 
where they were doing no harm, forcing them to seek 
another retreat. The most desperate of them settled 
on the island of Tortuga, joined with them some Dutch 
adventurers, styling themselves the " Brethren of the 
Sea," and began to prey upon the Spanish commerce. 
The Spaniards termed them ".Filibusteros, " from the 
little boats they used called filibotes ; hence our term, 
filibuster; but eventually they received the generic 
name of "Buccaneers," derived from the Carib word 
boucan — applied to the process of cooking meat on a 
spit over an open fire, in the Carib Indian fashion. 
They derived many words direct from the Carib; as, for 
example, aj'oupa, a native hut, which is used to designate 
such a shelter to-day; I myself have many times slept 
in the woods beneath an ajoupa, my companions the 
descendants of the very Caribs from whom the bucca- 
neers obtained their words and wigwams. 

During the greater part of the seventeenth century 



THE BUCCANEERS AND THE BLACK KING. 197 

these buccaneers ruled the seas adjacent to Tortuga, 
and even made plundering expeditions to Cuba and the 
Spanish Main. They divided themselves into groups, 
or bands, one for plunder on the high seas, one for 
hunting the wild cattle that swarmed in the island of 
Haiti, across the channel, and another for killing and 
salting the meat of the wild hogs. They were rarely 
defeated in an encounter, for they fought to the death, 
sinking or burning their boats when they boarded an 
enemy, and staking everything on their ventures. 

Their first great leader was called Peter the Great, 
and his initial adventure as their captain signalized him 
as desperate enough for any deed of blood or daring, for 
he boarded the ship of a Spanish vice-admiral, seeking 
him out in his cabin, and taking the big ship through 
sheer pluck and bravado, having only a handful of men 
at his back. 

The greatest name the buccaneers have handed down 
to history is that of Morgan, who, with twelve sail and 
seven hundred fighting men, took and sacked many 
cities on the Spanish Main. In 167 1, he captured the 
city of Panama. Then, with the immense plunder in 
his possession, he retired to Jamaica, where he lived 
in honored retirement, and was knighted by the British 
crown. Another famous buccaneer was Van Home, 
who robbed Vera Cruz of over six million dollars, and 
escaped with his boats in the sight of a Spanish 
squadron. 

Now and then the buccaneers turned their atten- 
tion to the sunken galleons that storm or battle had 
sent to the bottom of the sea. recovering great treasure 



198 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

therefrom; but the largest "haul" of sunken silver was 
made by a man of different pursuits in life, under the 
very noses of the buccaneers, and at the time they were 
in the heydey of their career. This man was Sir 
William Phipps, the New England baronet, and at one 
time governor of Massachusetts. He raised a wrecked 
galleon off the coast of Haiti, and took from her thirty- 
two tons of silver, and pearls and jewels to the amount 
of one million five hundred thousand dollars. 

But the trade gradually became too precarious for 
even the hardy settlers of Tortuga, and at last the 
merchant vessels were freed from their depredations, 
except for desultory attacks. Attracted by the fertile 
fields of Haiti, across the channel, many of the buc- 
caneers turned planters, bought or stole slaves for the 
cultivation of their estates, and settled down to earn 
an honest livelihood. This departure may have taken 
place about the beginning of the eighteenth century; 
at all events, the best portions of the larger islands 
were eventually appropriated, and those vast sugar and 
coffee estates were begun that at one time supplied 
France with much that she obtained from abroad. 

From men who had trodden the quarter-decks of 
pirate ships, and from their descendants, what could be 
expected but cruelty and oppression in their attitude 
toward their slaves ? The French planters had the 
reputation of being more cruel than any others. In the 
year 1768, it was estimated that one hundred and four 
thousand slaves were bought on the coast of Africa 
— fifty- three thousand by British merchants alone; the 
consumption of negroes at that time was some sixty 



THE BUCCANEERS AND THE BLACK KING. 



199 



thousand annually, and the total number up to that time 
brought into America estimated at above nine million. 
During the first decade of the nineteenth century, it is 
said that negroes were so abundant in the West Indies 
that slaves were " cheaper to buy than bread." It was 




''-^^^^ 



OLD BUCCANEER WATCH-TOWER - 



■ COAST OF HAITI. 



in 1789 that Wilberforce, in the House of Commons, 
made his famous plea for the abolition of the slave 
trade; the annual shipment from Africa to the West 
Indies, at that time, being thirty-eight thousand, of 
which a great number perished on the voyages. 

The French colonies received their share of the im- 
ported slaves, and it was admitted that Africans were 



200 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

brought to the island of Haiti even during the revolu- 
tion. Regarding this great uprising, by which the 
richest colonial possession of France was completely 
lost to her, we have but little space for details. Briefly 
stated in the words of another writer : ' ' The summon- 
ing of the States-General in France created much 
enthusiasm in Haiti; but all classes were disappointed: 
the planters, the low-class whites, the free blacks, and 
the colored; while the slaves, although discontented, 
were only formidable from their numbers. The fire- 
brand that lit the combustibles was the utterance in the 
Assembly, ' Perish the colonies rather than a principle, ' 
on the fifteenth of May, 1791. . . . The negroes of 
the North rose in insurrection, put to death every white 
that fell into their hands, and then rushed en masse to 
pillage Cape Haitien ; but the French troops drove them 
back to the mountains." 

The ferocity of the negro nature then had full swing; 
and all the prisoners were put to death with terrible 
tortures. Several leaders assumed to command. Event- 
ually there rose to view preeminent among his fellows, 
that Haitian whom history and poetry have made 
known to fame as Toussaint L'Ouverture. He was born 
a slave, on an estate called La Breda, in the north of 
Haiti, near the city of the Cape. There he remained 
until above fifty years of age, when the exigencies of 
the revolution called him to the front. Tradition says 
that he was indirectly descended from an African 
prince, but when I made inquiries at the Cape, in 1892, 
this story was laughed at by the Government repre- 
sentative. In 1796, Toussaint had gained complete 



THE BUCCANEERS AND THE BLACK KING. 201 

ascendancy in the North, Cape Haitien being the capital 
and center of operations, and by the year 1800 the whole 
of Haiti was under him. 

The island was finally united and on the road to 
promised prosperity, for Toussaint's rule was enlight- 
ened and wise, and he showed signs of being anxious 
for the highest welfare of his people. He prepared a 
liberal constitution, which he submitted to Bonaparte, 
but the latter unwisely replied by sending soldiers in- 
stead of encouragement, in the person of General Le 
Clerc with thirty thousand men. The French general 
tried to surprise the Cape, but the negro general, 
Christophe, then in command, set fire to the city (apply- 
ing the torch first to his own house) and retired to 
the mountains. Toussaint gave orders to his other 
generals to follow this example ; but finally, influenced 
through the defection of some of his officers, he sub- 
mitted to Le Clerc; he was later arrested, sent on 
board a French ship, and taken to France, dying a 
captive in exile. Not long after, a fearful epidemic fell 
upon the French soldiers. What the natives could not 
accomplish the fever did, as it carried off some forty 
thousand victims in the two years of 1802 and 1803, 
among them being the commanding officer and twenty 
of his generals. 

Freed from the French, whose evacuation of the 
island took place on the twenty-eighth of November, 
1803, the Haitians had only themselves to contend 
against. Dessalines a negro, was chosen general-in- 
chief, and on the first of January, 1804, an Act of Inde- 
pendence, signed by all the generals, was promulgated. 



202 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

In this they swore to posterity, to the whole universe, 
in fact, "to renounce France forever, and to die rather 
than live under her dominion; " an oath they and their 
descendants have nobly kept. 

Dessalines was a monster of cruelty, whose name has 
long been held in detestation, and his accession was 
signalized by the massacre of all the whites who had 
hitherto escaped the fury of the blacks. But his reign 
was short, as he was killed by his own troops, in 1806. 

Two rival chiefs then fell to fighting for the suc- 
cession, and the country was deluged with blood; but' 
finally, in March, 181 1, an act was passed establishing 
a Haitian royalty, and General Christophe was declared 
king, under the title of Henry I. 

Christophe, the first black king in America, was a 
negro from the English island of Grenada, and spoke 
both French and English, though pretending not to un- 
derstand the latter when it might serve his purpose to 
remain in ignorance. 

The Haitian burlesque of royalty was most complete, 
and the world has never witnessed a more delight- 
ful piece of buffoonery than the establishment of the 
"royal court," the elevation of ignorant black men to 
the ranks of the "nobility," and even the creation of 
an order of knighthood. The ' ' Knights of St. Henry " 
have long since disappeared; the royal court held its 
last audience many years ago; but the titles of nobility 
(though conveying no meaning) still survive ; the Count 
of Lemonade, the Duke of Marmalade, etc., are fre- 
quently heard of, and an " Almanach Royal " was pub- 
lished so late as 1820, giving the list of the nobility, 



I 



THE BUCCANEERS AND THE BLACK KING. 203 

the officers of State, the privy council, and the knights 
of the order of St. Henry. 

I myself recall a meeting with a descendant of one 
of these ci-devant nobles on the saline back of Cape 
Haitien, where I was photographing some natives. As 
I was picking my way through the mud, two horsemen 
cantered by, one of them in the faded and tattered uni- 
form of an officer of the guard, with a cocked hat on his 
woolly head and enormous spurs on his naked heels. 
Inquiring the name of this imposing individual, I was 
informed that it was no less a personage than General 
Limonade, who resided on the ancestral estates near 
Petit Anse, and who did the best he could to maintain 
the prestige of his noble grandfather. The grandilo- 
quent dispatches of the Count de Lemonade are part 
and portion of Haiti's history, and his fulsome eulogies 
of Saint Henry may be found in a volume entitled 
"Relation des Glorieux Evenements " of the great 
king. 

It was as a despot that Christophe ruled in the North, 
plundering his subjects, who held their lives at his pleas- 
ure, and building his throne upon the murdered minions 
who prostrated themselves before him. 

He was a savage, with a desire for the advancement of 
his people to the rank of those who had long enjoyed the 
benefits of civilization, and, too, he tried to force them. 
He invited scientific and learned men from abroad ; he 
encouraged commerce and protected foreigners; he es- 
tablished schools, and promoted a feverish activity that 
subsided at his death. But his passions, and not his 
intellect, drove him on, and if balked in any of his 



204 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

plans he wrecked revenge upon the nearest victim, with 
most ferocious cruelty. He massacred a great number 
of colored women, at the Cape, on the strength of a 
rumor that they had prayed for his defeat in battle, and 
no domestic circle was safe from his invasion. An 
English minister, writing in 1830, states that he saw, at 
the Cape, a ruffian-like negro who atone time was chief 
executioner to the king, but was then acting as a common 
porter. He was a savage of massive build, and it was 
told of him that he had acquired such dexterity, from 
long and frequent practice, that he could, with his saber, 
decapitate a man at one blow, without staining his collar 
with blood. 

The character of Christophe has been accurately 
analyzed by Minister Mackenzie, who visited the scenes 
of his cruelties and achievements only six years after 
Christophe's death, and upon whom I have relied for my 
data in this description. "As an ignorant, untaught 
man, he may be considered one of those phenomena 
that occasionally excite attention, but leave scarcely any 
beneficial trace behind. He seems to have had a rare 
degree of native acuteness, activity, intrepidity, and the 
art of commanding the respect of those around him. 
These qualities, however, united with his absolute igno- 
rance, were disadvantageous, as, while they made him 
master of one view of a subject, he was blind to every 
other; and thus, knowing nothing of the almost imper- 
ceptible degrees by which alone civilization can be 
rendered permanent, he attempted to carry his object 
by storm, and succeeded, until bodily infirmity con- 
vinced his barbarian subjects that he was mortal. With 



THE BUCCANEERS AND THE BLACK KING. 205 

all his Strength of mind he could not resist the tempta- 
tion of encouraging a belief that he was protected by a 
tutelary demon, who would have instantly avenged any 
insult offered to him. It is also said that he had great 



j'Ji ^ 




f ijiii' ifti' 



SANS SOUCl — THE BLACK KING'S PALACE. 

faith in the sorcery of Obeah. With all his atrocities, 
he was an affectionate father, and endeavored to place 
his children above him in mental culture. " 

His efEorts to improve the condition of his subjects 
were futile, and of his great enterprises not one has 
conveyed a lasting benefit. But the black king has left 
behind him at least two monuments to his genius that 
are unique and unapproachable. These are his royal 
palace and his mighty castle. As has been mentioned, 



206 



IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 



he invited scientists and architects to Haiti, and the 
structures erected during his reign show that the latter 
possessed talent of the highest order. This is shown in 
the palace of Sans Souci, and the great fortress of La 
Ferriere. The palace was built at the head of a beauti- 
ful valley, two hours' ride from the Cape ; the castle 



\l. i 








SANS SOUCI — RUINS OF THE BLACK KING'S PALACE. 



was erected in the mountains the same distance farther 
on. I visited both, of course, and was lost in wonder 
and admiration, alike at the genius that could conceive, 
and the will that could execute such stupendous works. 
It is necessary to ride thither on horseback ; but good 



THE BUCCANEERS AND THE BLACK KING. 207 

beasts are difficult to procure at Cape Haitien, and had 
it not been for the kindness of Mr. Frank Dutton, son 
of the agent of the Clyde steamers and a merchant of 
repute at the Cape, I should have had to take the 
journey on foot. Mounted on the gallant roan Mr. 
Dutton had loaned me, and with two intelligent friends 
acquainted with all the points of interest along the route, 
I cantered gayly over the road to Millot, the town near- 
est the palace, and reached it at dusk after two hours 
in the saddle. 

The first view of Millot and the palace is obtained 
through an avenue of tall trees, nearly a mile in length, 
its yellow walls shining over the greensward and against 
a furrowed mass of wooded hills. It is beautiful be- 
yond description, and the air of desolation hanging 
over the scene enhances the soft beauty of the land- 
scape, giving the charm of romance to one of Nature's 
loveliest creations. Notice of our arrival had been 
sent ahead, and we were domiciled in the hut of the 
schoolmaster of the village of Millot, which settlement 
was once dependent upon the palace and court for sub- 
sistence, and now lingers in the memory of happier 
days departed. Our host was a black man of good 
presence, who placed all he had at our disposal, and 
gave us assistance without asking anything for his 
trouble. I had been provided with letters to the com- 
mandant of the station here — for without permission 
from General Alexis, commanding in the North, no one 
can visit this spot — and in the morning several soldiers 
were placed at my orders, and we explored the palace. 
It is now in ruins, as earthquakes have rent its walls 



208 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

and shaken its foundations; but even in its decay it 
gives evidence of magnificence beyond anything ever 
attempted elsewhere in the West Indies. In truth, it 
may be called, taken in connection with the fortress, the 
wonder of the islands. Situated in a most commanding 
position at the base of high hills covered with tropical 
trees, and pouring down sparkling streams of purest 
water, with a view of the vale of Millot spread at its 
feet like a bit of earthly Paradise, dotted with cocoa 
palms, and with the palm-covered huts of simple cot- 
tagers peeping out here and there; with a climate soft 
and provocative of luxuriant tropic growths, this 
palace of Sans Souci must have offered a retreat from 
the cares of the world such as few spots on earth can 
afford. 

As you ascend the hill, at the left is a circular ruin, 
once the chapel of the king; beyond this along flight of 
steps leads to the esplanade; above it are the terraces 
and the stairs leading to the palace itself. It is roofless, 
with great trees (the ficiLS indicd) growing out of crevices 
and fringing the walls, while vines of many kinds creep 
in and out the windows and doorways. In a court out- 
side stands a great star-apple-tree, beneath which King 
Henry held audience with his officers, and behind the 
palace are the remains of extensive gardens, irrigated 
with water from the hills. There are numerous apart- 
ments in the palace, and the room is still shown (though 
inaccessible now from the falling of the stairway) where 
Christophe killed himself. This event occurred in the 
year 1820, at the news that some of his generals had 
revolted, and were marching upon Millot. The king 



THE BUCCANEERS AND THE BLACK KING. 211 

was then suffering from partial paralysis, but with ter- 
rible energy he called for a bath of stimulating herbs, 
mounted his horse, and tried to take the field. But the 
disease had too strong a hold upon him, and he was 
compelled to retire to his room. There, realizing that 
his end was near, he shot himself with a silver bullet, 
and in the morning was found dead. 

His remains were taken to the castle, two hours 
farther in the hills, and there his tomb may be seen 
to-day, surrounded with high and frowning walls. 

One bright morning we climbed the steep trail that 
led from the palace to the castle. The trail so rough 
that I feared for the footing of my brave steed. It led 
along the bases and brinks of precipices, and all the way 
through wild coffee groves and banana gardens, with 
such glorious views of land and distant sea that I was 
filled with delight and thanksgiving. At last we reached 
the fortress, built upon a high hill in the bosom of the 
mountains, far distant from all human life, and so solitary 
that it pained one to contemplate it. A work that would 
command the attention and admiration of man in any 
country, that would have taxed the genius and resources 
of any people, even with the aids of modern civilization 
close at hand. Yet this great fortress was built by a 
semi-savage ; all its material had to be drawn from the 
wild mountains, all its defensive equipment imported 
from other lands, whence, also, came its architects and 
its skilled workmen. 

An old negro appeared out of the surrounding wilds, 
announcing that he held the key of the castle; and 
gradually a retinue of barbaric boys and savage-looking 



212 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

men surrounded and followed us up to the grim entrance 
of the tower and into the gloomy apartments. A heavy 
door protects the only entrance ; and this once gained 
you find yourself in a dark keep, climbing out into a 
covered way, and at last crossing a deep fosse over a 
narrow plank that now takes the place of the ancient 
drawbridge. Thence we groped our way into the low 
galleries filled with cannon — long rows of grim monsters 
of the last century — some captured from the king of 
Spain, some purchased from France, and some of Eng- 
land. There were three hundred of them, the guide 
told me — and I believe it, from the number lying in the 
galleries, and scattered about the fortress. ' And every 
cannon was hauled up here by toiling, suffering men, 
urged to incredible labors by the tyrant's brutal over- 
seers. Some of these guns must have weighed four 
or five tons each, being those old pieces as long as a 
Columbiad, heavy and unwieldy. No one knows to-day 
how they were taken here, except that it was solely by 
the unaided labor of men, and through long years of toil. 
My guide related an instance of Christophe's cruelty 
and the torments he inflicted on his men. One day, 
seeing a party of some forty men toiling vainly at the 
removal of a heavy gun from low to higher ground, 
he inquired the reason of delay. The overseer told 
him they could not start the cannon. " Take away 
twenty of those fools, and haul it up with what are left, " 
thundered the tyrant ; and it was done. It is not strange 
that the trail was full of dead and dying laborers, and 
that the walls of La Ferriere are built upon the bones 
of a thousand victims of the cruel king. 



THE BUCCANEERS AND THE BLACK KING. 



213 



The castle walls tower above one, standing at the en- 
trance, to a height of nearly a hundred feet ; they are 
rent and toppling from earthquake shocks but are still 
strong and massive. Within this vast fortification Chris- 
tophe built chambers for storing grain, powder and am- 
munition, it being his intention to make this his last 




^;^-i^- 



OLD MORTARS IN THE BLACK KING'S CASTLE. 



retreat. For he ever feared the return of the French, 
and it was his intention to retire to this fortress, as his 
forlorn hope, and here immure himself, in this place 
which Nature and man had combined to make impreg- 
nable. To this end he accumulated here vast stores, and 
I have seen thousands of flints and balls, in the chamber 
devoted to the ammunition. It is said that at the time 



214 



IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 



of his death he had hidden here more than thirty mil- 
lions of dollars. I have penetrated the inmost recesses 
of the treasure-vaults, have seen there several old iron 
chests, clamped and bound about with hoops, their locks 




m 

' I'm 

m 



BROKEN ARCH — THE BLACK KING'S CASTLE 



broken and their lids wrenched off, just as they were 
left by the plundering soldiers after the death of the 
tyrant. We wandered about the fortress for hours, 
coming upon some new thing at every turn, and I was 
forced to render tribute to the misguided genius of this 
great and fierce nature warring with the forces of his 
environment. 

His character is well illustrated in a story the guide 



THE BUCCANEERS AND THE BLACK KING. 215 

told me of the time when Christophe lived here. One 
day a fearful thunder-storm swept over the fortress. 
The savage nature of the king responded to this war- 
ring of the elements, and he awoke to the implied 
challenge of the bolts that struck his castle. " Aha! " 
he cried, his eyes gleaming and dilating, "the Al- 
mighty thinks he can frighten Christophe, does he? 
Sacre — To7inerre! we will show him that we can make 
as much noise as he can. Ho, there, gunners! stand 
by all the guns. Load them to the muzzle. Fire! all 
at a time. Again, again, all! give the Almighty good 
as he sends! I, the king, will show him what it is to 
thunder! " 

The great guns roared their salutes, drowning the din 
of the elements, filling the galleries with sulphurous 
smoke, amidst which the sable gunners appeared like 
demons ; and the heart of the savage was filled with a 
fierce joy, having had a tilt with forces elemental, and 
silencing with a counterblast the voice of Heaven's 
artillery. 

In the center of the fortress stands the tomb in which 
were placed the remains of Christophe, in 1820. But it 
is vacant, having been rifled of its contents by vandal 
tourists and revolutionists. The bones are said to have 
been large, and to have belonged to a man of immense 
frame. His bones are scattered and no one knows their 
resting-place ; his works are crumbling, but still attest 
the indomitable will, the striving after greatness, the 
blind groping for power, of this great savage, who has 
the honor of having been the first black king in America. 
His castle is in ruins, his palace an abode for owls and 



216 



IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 



bats, while the people he strove to elevate are as deep 
as ever in the mire of ignorance, and apparently lapsing 
into savagism. 

Down at Millot I found a relic of his times, in a 
beautiful bust of Melpomene, stuck up in the dirt in 
front of the barracks. Carved from pure white marble, 
the classic face and shapely shoulders showing those 
perfect curves, yet the Muse of Tragedy was degraded 
to this. I revenged this outrage to my aesthetic sense, 
by placing a dirty soldier on one side of the Muse, and 
another on the other, and photographing them thus: a 
type of Haiti. 




BEAUTY AND THE BEASTS — ?"OUND AT MILLOT. 



X. 



THE FIRST AMERICAN CHRISTMAS. 

AS we have digressed, in the last three chapters, 
from the course pursued by Columbus, we will 
now return to gather up again the threads of history 
temporarily dropped. Taking his departure from the 
eastern point of Cuba, at Cape Maysi, the Admiral 
sailed easterly until he finally saw before him the 
towering mountains of a magnificent island which, while 
yet more beautiful than Cuba, was strikingly different 
in the sweep of its hills and the contours of its shores. 

The fleet of Columbus, consisting of the Nifia, the 
Pinta and the Santa Maria, had held together during 
all the tedious voyaging across the ocean and through 
the Bahamas; but, on the coast of Cuba, Captain Pinzon 
had sailed off on his own account, so that but two 
vessels and less than one hundred men arrived off this 
unknown island, on the sixth of December, 1492. 

The native name was Bohio, and the Cubans had 
called it Babeque, describing it as a region where 
the Spaniards would obtain in abundance the precious 
metal for which they were continually inquiring and 
seeking. The Indians resident here called it Haiti: 

217 



218 



IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 



"Ai,"high, "Ti,"land, or the Island of Mountains, 
and by this native appellation the western portion is 
still known. To the eastern half the aborigines applied 
the term Quisqueya, or "Mother of the Earth," now 
called Santo Domingo. 

The western portion was also known as Bohio, the 
"Great Country," the word itself being still used in 




A RELIGIOUS PKOCESSION AT CAPE HAITIEN. 



the interior, to designate the huts of straw or cane built 
and occupied by the poorer people. 

The port of Bohio first entered by Columbus, he 
called Saint Nicolas, in honor of the saint's day on 
which it was discovered. It is the same Mole San 
Nicolas over which the governments of the United 
States and Haiti almost had a quarrel, a year or two 
ago. Sending the little Niiia ahead for soundings, the 



THE FIRST AMERICAN CHRISTMAS. 219 

Admiral followed in the Santa Maria, and dropped 
anchor in the spacious harbor to which the smaller craft 
piloted. Desirous to unfold the beauties of the coast 
beyond, Columbus and his crew did not tarry long, 
but sailed on again, a storm accelerating their progress 
until they found refuge under the lee of Tortuga. 
Beyond, again, they opened up a delightful valley with 
a fine river flowing through it, and withal so beautiful 
that the Admiral mamed it Val de Paraiso, or the Vale 
■of Paradise. Leaving its harbor at midnight, their next 
anchorage was off a sandy beach near which was a 
large native village, since known as Port de Paix. 
Here the Spaniards saw a great m.any Indians, whose 
king, or Cacique, told them that the Land of Gold, Ba- 
beque, lay two days' sail to the eastward. Pursuing the 
direction indicated, they next anchored in the great 
bay of Acul, of which Columbus writes in his first letter: 
* ' I have now been at sea twenty-three years, with 
scarcely any intermission, and have seen the East and 
the West; but in all those parts I have never witnessed 
so much of perfection in harbors as in this. " 

It was in this beautiful bay that they first heard of 
the Indian king, Guacanagari, so famous subsequently, 
and so unfortunate, and who assisted them to pass their 
first Christmas in comfort. Here, also, for the first 
time they heard of the heart of the gold country — 
the Cibao. This Columbus, in his eagerness to arrive 
at the regions of the Grand Khan, felt sure must mean 
the Cipango described by Marco Polo in his most won- 
derful book. Cacique Guacanagari cordially invited the 
strangers to visit him, and accompanied the invitation 



220 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

with a rich present: a cotton girdle, attached to which 
was a mask with ears, tongue and nose, all of beaten 
gold. This golden present seemed such an earnest of 




THE SANTA MARIA, THE FLAG-SHIP OF COLUMBUS. 
C Wrecked Christmas eve, 1492.) 

the rich gold mines beyond, that Columbus lost no time 
in following after the returning messenger, and one 
morning at sunrise the ship and the caravel spread their 
sails to the breeze, and sailed again along their eastern 
course. The day was bright and beautiful, and nothing 
presaged the dire disaster that was so soon to overtake 
them. The breeze was light and baffling, but the sea 



THE FIRST AMERICAN CHRISTMAS. 221 

was smooth as glass, and unseen currents drifted them 
along. For three months the sailors had been apprehen- 
sive of accident, and on the lookout for some calamity ; 
they had feared the trade-wind would always blow from 
the east, and that they could never return to Spain ; that 
if they sailed so far down the watery hill they could never 
sail back again; they feared the serpents and the mer- 
maids, the submarine monsters and the terrene bipeds, 
but they never dreamed, now that their fears had been 
allayed, that the evil spirits of the sea were even then 
hurrying their vessels to destruction. Yet so it was. 
The two vessels drifted over the glassy sea till near 
midnight, when the Admiral, worn out with constant 
watching, retired to his cabin to sleep. Following the 
example of their commander, although they had been 
cautioned by him to maintain a careful watch, the sea- 
men then on deck also seized the occasion to sleep, 
leaving the helm in the sole care of a boy. 

I always felt pity for that boy; the only mention of 
bim at all is the brief statement that the helm was 
left in his charge. But, although he goes unmentioned 
thereafter, I am sure he got kicked and cuffed by the 
sailors for their own negligence! Poor little chap! I 
can imagine his terror when the accident happens, and 
bis big black eyes filling with tears at the reproaches 
of the men. The winds were light and the sea was 
calm ; but there was an unseen force at work tugging 
at the vessel's keel, that the mariners had not reckoned 
on; a strong and treacherous current that forced the 
Santa Maria upon a sand-bank, and the first intimation 
the boy at the helm had of anything amiss was through 



222 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

the beating of the waves against the side of the ship. 
The rudder became immovable, and the young sailor, 
greatly alarmed, cried out to the men who, with the 
Admiral, acted with great promptitude, lightened the 
vessel, cut away the masts, and carried an anchor out ta 
windward; but all to no avail, for the ship was too 
firmly fixed in the sands. 

She was a total wreck, and the crew were finally 
transferred to the Nina, which came as near to the 
reefs as was deemed prudent, and lay by till morning. 
This, in brief, is an account of the first accident of 
moment that befell Columbus on his first voyage to 
America. 

He was then, as we have seen, on his way to visit 
Guacanagari. When the vessel struck the reef, he was- 
only four or five miles away from the Indian village of 
Guarico. Columbus lost no time in sending news of the 
disaster to the chieftain and imploring his assistance, 
which was at once afforded, the Cacique sending a fleet 
of canoes to the reefs, in which all the wreckage was 
taken to the shore and stored in huts assigned by Gua- 
canagari for that purpose near his own residence. 

It was on Monday, the twenty-fourth of December, 
on the eve of our Lord's nativity, that the little fleet 
sailed from the bay of Acul, arriving at the scene of 
disaster about midnight. The first hours of the morn- 
ing succeeding were passed in rescuing the wreckage, 
and in conveying it all to Guarico. At dawn this had 
been accomplished, and at daylight the shipwrecked 
mariners were sharing the hospitality of the noble 
Guacanagari. Not a man was injured, not an ounce of 



THE FIRST AMERICAN CHRISTMAS. 



223 



\\\V\ \ 



\ \::.. ; ; 




■j' 



>\\, 







'V^.^/«;: 



THE WRECKED CAEAVEL. 



provisions lost, not a spar nor a nail detachable that 
was not safely landed with them ; yet in the words of 
Robinson Crusoe, "what an awful deliverance" was 
theirs! The rising sun of that Christmas morning 
shone with tropic fervor, the dewy thickets of precious 



224 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

woods exhaled delicious odors, the birds caroled their 
welcomes to the morn; yet these men noticed not the 
signs of awakening life around them, so plunged were 
they in deep despondency. 

And this was Christmas morning. This was the first 
recognition of the birth of the Christ-child in this New 
World then just brought to light. And how did they pass 
the day? At first, deep gloom enwrapped them all — 
these hundred men, two thousand miles from home, and 
with but one frail caravel to take them back. But the 
Cacique was unwearied in his attentions ; his grief at the 
disaster was so manifest, and his attempts to divert them 
from their trouble so delicately proffered, that finally 
hope returned to cheer them, and they thought upon 
their blessings. 

The little Nifia lay anchored off the village of Guarico, 
and at sunrise of the day after Christmas, the Cacique 
paid a visit of state to the Admiral, when Columbus 
was so pleased with his frank and manly bearing that 
he repeats his encomiums, declaring him preeminent in 
virtue. While the king was on board, his Indian sub- 
jects swarmed in canoes around the caravel, holding out 
pieces of gold, and crying out, "Chug, chug! " intimat- 
ing that they wished to barter the nuggets for hawks- 
bells, over which they went wild with joy. Seeing that 
such trifle-s brought in exchange great pieces of gold, 
Columbus was delighted, and at the sight of the pleas- 
ure expressed in his countenance, Guacanagari, quick 
to note the change, assured him that if gold was the 
object of his desires, he would direct him to a region 
where the very stones were golden, and where it was in 



THE FIRST AMERICAN CHRISTMAS. 225 

such abundance that the people dwelhng there held it 
in light esteem. This region he called Cibao, which 
Columbus construed to mean Cipango, so long the goal 
before him in his voyagings. He found it later, on his 
second voyage, and thence drew millions of treasure. 

After breakfasting, the Cacique took the Admiral 
ashore, and spread a banquet, at which several sub- 
chiefs were present, probably coming from the interior, 
each one wearing a coronet of gold. Two of them 
presented their coronets to Columbus, and confirmed 
the story of the abundance of the precious metal in the 
mountains of the Cibao. 

Guacanagari also wore a golden crown, but nothing 
else save a shirt and a pair of gloves, given him by Co- 
lumbus, and of which he seemed prouder than of his 
coronet. The repast consisted of ajcs^ or nutritive roots, 
shrimp, and native bread called cassavi^ which is in use 
there to-day. After it was over, he rubbed his hands 
with fragrant herbs and washed them carefully. More 
than a thousand Indians are said to have been present, 
and the Admiral, wishing to impress them with his 
strength, sent for a Moorish bowman, who astonished 
the natives with his skill. Afterward a lombard was 
fired, the report of which so frightened the Indians that 
they all fell flat on the ground. 

From the wreckage of the Santa Maria, from its 
strong timbers and planks, a fort was constructed near 
the village of Guarico, and in it a garrison was left ; for 
the remaining vessel was not large enough to carry them 
all, and many of them desired to stay. Work on the 
fort proceeded so rapidly that it was completed within 



226 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

ten days. It was in the form of a tower, protected 
on every side by a broad and deep ditch. Thus was 
founded the Fortress of Navidad, the first structure 
raised by Europeans in America. Small cannon, called 
lombards, were mounted on its walls, the garrison of 
forty men were supplied with biscuit for a year, as well 
as wine, besides all the merchandise that remained, that 
they might exchange it for gold. And Columbus, in 
his letter apprising his sovereigns of what had been 
done, wrote that he trusted in Providence that he should 
return here from Castile and find at least a ton of gold 
collected, as well as spices in great quantity. 

Then he sailed away, leaving here this handful of 
men in a land of savages, not one of whom would he 
ever again behold alive. 

Where did the flag-ship founder, and where was the 
first fort built? These have been vexed questions with 
the historians, ever since Columbus became an interest- 
ing subject of study; it was to attempt to unravel the 
mystery surrounding those important events, that the 
writer was dispatched to Haiti, in 1891 and 1892. 

And it was my good fortune to unearth a chain of 
evidence that brought to light many important facts, 
and placed in the possession of our own Columbian 
Exposition an invaluable relic of the Santa Maria. 

In brief: the reef on which the flag-ship grounded 
lies off the city of Cape Haitien, an important port in 
the island of Haiti ; a mile or so distant is Point Picolet, 
called by Columbus, Punta Santa. Rounding Point 
Picolet, that m.emorable Christmas Eve, the Santa 
Maria was forced by the current upon the first of a line 



THE FIRST AMERICAN CHRISTMAS. 



227 



of reefs that stretches in front of Cape Haitien, from 
three to five miles distant, and a little farther from the 
Indian village. This Indian settlement of Guarico has 
been located at the present bourg of Petit Anse, two 
miles from Cape Haitien; it is now partly in ruins, and 
occupied by fisher-folk. There is a small chapel here 




IN PETIT ANSE. 



rudely furnished, and a few small huts and houses, 
while beyond and around are extensive salines, or salt- 
flats, and the coast in every direction is low, and bor- 
dered with mangrove swamps. 

We know that everything pertaining to the wrecked 
vessel was brought here, and that the fort was built 
near Guacanagari's village for mutual protection; hence 
we must look for its site not far away. This site I have 
found on the summit of a small hill, called San Michel, 



228 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

isolate in the saline and near the beach, with slopes so 
nearly perpendicular as to appear artificial. I found 
no relic there; but its position, so near the ancient 
Guarico, the only elevation within two miles or more, 
and its strategic advantages over every other situation, 
marks it, without much doubt, as the spot where Navidad 
was founded. 

Passing over the subsequent events of the first voyage 
of Columbus, let us have recourse to the journal of the 
second, and learn at once the fate of Navidad, The 
Niria had sailed for Spain, leaving the little garrison 
alone in the fort. Eleven months later the Admiral 
returned, as he had promised he would, with a large 
fleet, to receive the ton or two of gold he confidently ex- 
pected. They arrived in front of the fort, but it was 
night, and as a vessel had been lost here the year before 
on these same reefs, no communication was established 
with the shore, but the ships lay to till morning. Two 
cannon were fired, but there was no response from the 
shore, which lay enwrapped in darkness, without sign of 
light or life. 

Great uneasiness prevailed throughout the night, and 
in the morning early a boat was sent to land, when the 
fort was found dismantled, not one of the garrison being 
encountered alive. It was learned finally that a few of 
the garrison had died of disease, a dozen had been killed 
in an expedition into the mountain region, and all the 
rest had been massacred by the fierce Caonabo, the Ca- 
cique of the Golden Mountains, who had secretly marched 
upon the fortress in the night. He had also killed many 
of the subjects of the friendly Guacanagari, who was 



THE FIRST AMERICAN CHRISTMAS. 229 

found by the Spaniards reclining in a cotton hammock, 
suffering- from a wound received in personal encounter 
with Caonabo himself. 

We cannot believe that the Cacique had any part in 
the massacre, except in defense of the garrison, and even 
the suspicions of Columbus were allayed at sight of his 
wounds and his tearful protestations. 

Columbus had come here with the intention of estab- 
lishing a settlement, but, although Guacanagari would 
have welcomed him, notwithstanding his village had 
been burned, and his people ruined by the coming of the 
Spaniards, yet the Admiral was too much oppressed by 
what had occurred to entertain the thought of founding a 
city upon the ruins of Navidad. The situation was ex- 
cellent, the scenery magnificent ; but a pall of gloom now 
overshadowed this fair land, which he had discovered 
only a few months previously rejoicing in plenty and 
peace. So he sent a caravel along the coast to search 
for a site. 

The founding of Navidad is the most interesting inci- 
dent of the first voyage of Columbus, after the first dis- 
covery of land. Hence, anything throwing light upon 
that exciting episode should be welcomed by the world 
as an important contribution to the stores of history. 
Such contribution I have made, and its authenticity 
established beyond a doubt. Arrived at Haiti, I landed 
in the port of Cape Haitien, on the northern coast of 
the island. I had an important clew to a most valuable 
" find," and at once sought out our Consul, who because 
of my official position as Commissioner of the Columbian 
Exposition, put me in communication with the head of 



230 



IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 



the Government. This gentleman was General Nord 
Alexis. He was the actual president in the North, hav- 
ing rendered invaluable aid to President Hyppolite in 
his struggle for power. 

It so happened that the brother-in-law of the general 
owned the estate upon which was the article I sought, 
and he took me out to view it. This relic was nothing 
more nor less than an anchor of the Santa Maria. A 
learned friend in Santo Domingo had told me of it, and 
I was most anxious to obtain a view of it, and, if it 




SOLDIERS OF THE GUARD AT REST 



proved a genuine relic of the past, to purchase it. My 
friend had investigated the subject, and had determined 
that it could be regarded as authentic. It is a very 
natural question: How can you prove the genuineness 
of an anchor lost four hundred years ago, and trace it 
back to the very ship from which it was taken? This 



THE FIRST AMERICAN CHRISTMAS. 



231 



would seem difficult, on its face, but if I had the space 
I could give all the links in the chain of circumstantial 
evidence which leads directly back to the time and 




-.iCiii?;^ 



^*^ 



THE ANCHOR OF COLUMBUS — FOUND AT PETIT ANSE. 



scene of the wreck. However, I think I can make out 
a case without wearying- my readers. 

Following the main features of the historical narra- 
tive, we recall : that the fortress was entirely destroyed ; 
that all the men were killed ; that some of the plunder 
was found scattered about in the huts of the natives, 
and amongst these articles recovered, "an anchor of 
the caravel, which had been wrecked." We know that 
the spot at which the wreckage was deposited was 
Guarico, now Petit Anse; that near this point a fort 



232 



IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 




^=-*-<-fr«ry'<3' 



was built, and stocked with everything necessary, and 
that on the return of Columbus in the latter part of the 
year 1493, everything- was destroyed or dispersed. Fol- 
lowing out the clews afforded him by unvarying tradi- 
tions and the histori- 
cal evidence, my friend 
then discovered two an- 
cient anchors, one about 
two, and the other three 
miles from Guarico, and 
bearing every evidence 
of extreme antiquity. 
Each is of forged and 
hammered iron, about 
nine feet in length, 
and with a great ring 
over a foot in diameter. 
Sketches and photo- 
graphs have been sent to Paris and Madrid, and these 
have been pronounced types of the anchors in use at 
the end of the fifteenth century. 

At the time he re-discovered these anchors, my friend 
was living at the Cape, and from the proprietor of the 
estate on which one of them was found he received it 
as a present. But he did not take it away, and when I 
met him in Santo Domingo, he very kindly gave me 
permission to take it for exhibition at the Columbian 
Exposition at Chicago. 

Armed, as I have already stated, with a letter of 
introduction to the proprietor, I went in quest of the 
relic. General Nord's brother-in-law was also a "gen- 



ST. JOHN AND THE AGNUS DEI. 

(Caning at Petit Anse.) 



\ 



THE FIRST AMERICAN CHRISTMAS. 233 

eral," but, unlike the legion of black gentlemen at the 
Cape who bear this title without a distinction, he had 
seen actual service. Together we rode over the salines, 
and then through scattered gardens and the remains of 
ruined estates, to the ruins of the old "great house," 
about three miles distant from the city. The estate is 
one of the many wrecked plantations left abandoned at 
the time of the massacre of the French, a hundred years 
ago. The general, my companion, is descended from 
one of the black liberators, to whom, as a portion of his 
share of the spoil, fell this once beautiful estate, now in 
a condition of abandonment. We rode through the re- 
mains of a great avenue of tall trees, and hitched our 
mules at the corner post of a dilapidated dwelling. , 

A few yards distant stood the anchor, leaning against 
the stone pillars of an old well-curb, across which it had 
once been placed as an attachment for a rope and pulley. 
A single glance convinced me of its genuineness, and 
that, if not the veritable anchor of Columbus, it belonged 
to the times in which he lived. If it should be asked 
how came it so far from the shore, and a mile away 
from its conjectural landing-place, at Guariao? I should 
say, first, that it may have been brought here for the 
very purpose which it so evidently served. Again, it 
may have been carried a distance inland by the Indians, 
after the attack on Navidad. 

Either the mountain chieftain, Caonabo, undertook to 
transport it to his interior province, and, finding it a 
burden, dropped it on the way, or else, in their igno- 
rance, reasoning blindly that the anchor was an engine 
-of destruction, or essential to the working of the caravels 



234 



IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 



on the sea, the simple savages had intended removing 
it as far as possible from the coast. No mention is. 
made of any plunder of importance carried away by 
Columbus on his second visit, and not only the anchors 
may have been left, but also the lombards of the fort; 
which, likewise, may have been taken by the Indians to 
a distance, or to their strongholds in the mountains. 
But there it was before me at last, and I lost no time in 
negotiating for this precious relic, with the result that 
-next day it was on board the Clyde steamer, the Osama, 
and on its way to Chicago, via New York and Washington, 




XI. 



ROUND ABOUT ISABELLA. 







I 



THE OLD CONVENT. 



T was after 
having com- 
pleted the for- 
tress of Navidad 
that Columbus 
took his final de- 
parture from the 
coast of Haiti, on the 
fourth of January, 1493. 
Passing the reefs that 
had wrecked the Santa 
Maria, their largest vessel, the Spaniards sailed toward 
the east, and anchored at the base of a high, tent-shaped 
mountain, which Columbus called Monte-Cristi, a name 
it bears to-day. 

About a league distant from Monte-Cristi they watered 
their boats at a river, the sands of which glistened with 
particles of gold. Many of these precious particles 
clung to the hoops of the water-casks, and, for this 
reason, Columbus gave the stream the name of Rio del 
Oro, or the River of Gold. He did not, however, stop 

235 



236 



IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 



to explore its sands, but left that for the garrison at 
Navidad to do, as they were but eight leagues distant. 
Here, also, the Admiral saw those wonderful mermaids, 
three in number, standing high out of the water, and 
which have since been shown to be manatees, abundant 
in this River Yaqui, the name by which the Rio del Oro 
is known to-day. Columbus avers that he had seen 




huckster's shanty, on the river yaqui. 

such mermaids before, in Guinea and on the Pepper 
coast; but he says these American mermaids, though 
they had the faces of human beings, did not appear so 
handsome as represented. Any one who has seen the 
only American mermaid — the manatee, I mean — will 
agree with the Admiral that its face is not attractive. 



ROUND ABOUT ISABELLA. 237 

A little more than a year later, Columbus sought out 
the source of those golden sands, and I, who followed in 
his wake four hundred years after, have a half-ounce nug- 
get, from the head-waters of the River of Gold. I did not 
see the mermaids he describes, but I have seen the great 
gray sharks that infest the harbor of Monte-Cristi, the 
shooting of which from the steamers' decks, is about 
the only diversion afforded a passenger on the coast-line 
vessels. 

It was at Monte-Cristi that they met with the derelict 
Pinta, their companion across the Atlantic. The Pinta 
had run away from them when off the coast of Cuba, 
and had made an independent voyage to the east- 
ward. Martin Alonzo Pinzon was her captain, and his 
brother, Vicente, was master of ^Q.Nina^ so that Colum- 
bus, being in a measure at their mercy, could not repri- 
mand Don Martin Alonzo as he wished. That he 
nursed his wrath, however, and took revenge when once 
back in Spain, is a matter of history. But the two little 
vessels were now together again, and they remained in 
company till a storm separated them off the coast of Spain. 

Setting sail from Monte-Cristi at midnight, on the 
ninth of January, they cruised in company along the 
coast of what the Indians had told them was Babeque, 
or the Land of Gold. Its shores, eastwardly from their 
port of departure,- were very attractive, and Columbus 
went into raptures over "the country beyond them; 
level and beautiful, with tall mountains in the interior 
reminding me of the Sierras of Cordova, and the whole 
abounding in streams, and offering views of such variety, 
that the thousandth part cannot be described. " 



238 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

And in truth, as I myself can testif}^ there was no 
exaggeration in this enthusiastic language, for the north 
coast of Santo Domingo presents the grandest combina- 
tions of natural attractions the voyager could desire. 
The discoverers were then coasting off the locality in 
which, one year later, the initiatory attempt was made 
at a settlement, and to which Columbus returned on his 
second voyage. 

Abundance of sea-turtle were found along the shoals, 
many of them as "big as a buckler," and the second 
day they sighted a most magnificent mountain, with its 
feet in the sea and its head in the clouds. This moun- 
tain Columbus named Monte de Plata, or the Silver 
Mountain, because its crest is usually cloud-capped and 
wears a silver turban. Hence the name, and that of the 
town subsequently founded here, called Puerto Plata, 
to-day the most enterprising and the prettiest settle- 
ment on the coast of Santo Domingo. An excellent 
harbor was noted here, with a depth' of fourteen 
fathoms at the mouth ; and with the knowledge of its 
many advantages, it is a matter of wonder that Colum- 
bus did not return here, instead of passing it by to 
found the city subsequently started a year later at 
Isabella. 

Once having left the coast of Santo Domingo (or 
Espaiiola, as Columbus named it), the Spaniards sail be- 
yond the bounds of this volume. We know, however, 
that the home-voyage was tempestuous; that Columbus 
believing the vessels would sink, prepared a statement 
of his discoveries, inclosed it in a cake of wax, and cast 
it into the sea; that they made first land at the Azores, 



ROUND ABOUT ISABELLA. 239 

and were driven by a storm, to the mouth of the Tagus; 
that they gave an account of the voyage to the king of 
Portugal, and that the Nina finally anchored in the 
harbor of Palos, on the fifteenth of March, 1493, after an 
absence of seven months and a half. 

The court was then at Barcelona, and going from 
Palos to Seville, Columbus made thence a triumphal 
journey across the entire peninsula of Spain. Of his 
enthusiastic reception, of the honors heaped upon him, 
when he was dignified with the title of "Don" and 
confirmed in his claim to be styled the "Admiral of the 
Ocean Sea," we can make no mention here, merely not- 
ing that which concerns the land we are describing. 
But it was at the court at Barcelona, as shown in 
Balaca's spirited painting which has been selected as 
the fitting frontispiece for this volume, that were first 
displayed the Indians, the parrots, the golden orna- 
ments, the rare plants supposed to possess medicinal 
virtues, and many another thing the Spanish sovereigns 
wondered at and admired. 

Soon after the Admiral's arrival at court, royal orders 
went forth for the preparation of a fleet of seventeen 
vessels, to be well manned with most experienced sea- 
men and pilots, and also to carry miners, carpenters, 
husbandmen and mechanics — such persons, in fact, as 
would be of the greatest service in colonizing. 

Besides the crews and mechanics, great numbers of 
adventtirers desired to embark, including in their num- 
ber many hidalgos of high rank, lured by the stories of 
gold and silver to be had for the seeking in that far-oflf 
land. 



240 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

These "gentlemen of Spain " proved the most worth- 
less of all recruits for colonizing ; they mainly committed 
the murders ; they brought disaster to Columbus. They 
were brave; many had fought in the Moorish wars, and 
carrying out their schemes of plunder they carried fire 
and the sword amongst a peaceful people who had never 
lifted their hands against another except in self-defense. 
At last the fleet of carracks and caravels — seventeen 
sail in all — left the harbor of Cadiz, on the twenty- 
fifth of September, 1.493. 

On the third of November, land was sighted, in the 
Caribbees,or Southern West Indies, but it was not till the 
twenty-fifth of that month, after leisurely sailing through 
that golden chain of islands, that Columbus arrived at 
the site of Navidad. As we know, he found the fortress 
destroyed and the garrison massacred; and, whatever 
may have been his original intention as to fixing here 
the settlement he had been commissioned to found in 
the New World, the circumstances attendant upon his 
return thither prevented, if he had ever contemplated, 
the consummation of such a scheme. 

The aspect of brightness worn by the country less than 
a year ago, was now changed to one of gloom. Confi- 
dence in the Indians was impaired, suspicion and dis- 
trust had taken its place. The occupants of the vessels 
were anxious to disembark, even suffering for a change 
of environment ; but no settlers could be induced to fix 
their abode here, with the fate of their predecessors 
ever in mind. 

The fleet weighed anchor, and stood eastward from 
Monte-Cristi, and Fate, in the shape of an adverse 



ROUND ABOUT ISABELLA. 241 

wind, threw in their way what they had been so anp- 
iously seeking — a secure harbor, with an advantageous 
site for settlement. It was not far from a cape seen 
and named by Columbus on the previous voyage, in 
January. 

Within a line of frothing coral reefs is a deep basin, 
spacious enough for many ships the size of those in use 
in the time of which we write, and a great breastwork 
of coral rock, with a beautiful beach on one side and a 
river on the other, gave promise of an excellent site for 
the city that was to be. The ships were brought within 
the line of reefs, and the weary passengers, together 
with the live-stock and provisions, were landed on a 
little beach. 

It was on the seventh of^^ecember, 1493, that they 
arrived here, and they went to work with sucH'diligence 
that soon houses were built, and at least four buildings 
erected of stone, the remains of which have endured till 
the present time. Two months from the day of landing, 
a church was dedicated, and the new city, which Colum- 
bus had named " Isabella," presented a very creditable 
appearance. But it was not long occupied. Because of 
the insalubrity of the climate and the recklessness of the 
settlers, many deaths occurred, and in a few years it was 
abandoned. Ever since, or from the beginning of the 
fifteenth century, it has lain in desolation, no one living 
in it, and as it lies out of the track of travel, its very 
site was forgotten, and re-discovered only recently. For 
nearly four hundred years it remained buried in ob- 
scurity, and almost forgotten until the year 1891, when 
it became my duty to search it out. 



242 



IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 



The nearest port is Puerto Plata, about sixty miles 
away, and at this place I disembarked, one day in May, 
1 89 1. Two days after my arrival, I found a small coast- 
ing vessel, called a goleta, the captain of which promised 
to drop me at Isabella, as he passed on his way to the 
mahogany district. The American Consul secured me 
letters of introduction to residents in the country, and 




THE BAJO-BONICO. 

( The River on which Isabella was founded.) 



the manager of an estate situated near Isabella gave me 
orders on his mayor-domo for shelter and assistance. 

From Puerto Plata down the coast the scenery is ex- 
tremely picturesque; near Cape Isabella great gray 
cliffs of limestone stand boldly out, like battlements of 



ROUND ABOUT ISABELLA. 243 

vast fortifications, with a sea of verdure behind and 
crescentic beaches of snow-white sand intervening. 
The ancient city itself was situated on a plain which 
terminates in a bluff of coral conglomerate twenty to 
thirty feet high, facing the west and the ocean. A line 
of foaming breakers seems to forbid approach, but be- 
yond them is a shallow harbor, off the mouth of a river 
which is known as the .Bajo-Bonico. 

The goleta was called the Olivia^ a pretty name 
for a very filthy vessel, and she was manned by four 
black men. The blackest of whom was the "cap- 
tain." The heavy seas and the nauseous odors made 
me very ill, and I had to endure six hours of condensed 
misery before the breakers off Isabella were weathered 
and the little harbor gained. As we anchored half a 
mile from shore, the rain came down in torrents, and 
for an hour we were huddled together in the sweltering 
hole they called the "cabin." After awhile the rain 
ceased, my effects were loaded into the small boat, 
and we made for the river. We could see no en- 
trance, but we finally ran the breakers, and after 
bumping on the sands several times were well in- 
side. We then found ourselves in the dreariest river 
I had seen for many a month. It was a swift-flowing 
stream of yellow water between banks of mangroves, 
the only sign of life some blue-and-white herons, 
plovers, and black-neck stilts. Our boys pulled hard 
against a four-mile current, and half a mile up landed 
us opposite a collection of small houses on a bluff. We 
were met at the landing by a young man who had once 
lived in Florida; and, though we were in a Spanish- 



244 



IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 



speaking country, all the men then in our employ spoke 
English, the sailors having come from Grand Turk, in 
the Bahamas. The young man, Washington Banks, had 
been recommended by our Consul, so he was at once in- 
stalled as factotum and general purveyor. He took us 
to the house on the bank, which we found to be a very 



/i 


p' 






*''L 


m 


■3s;: 




h 


' ■^.V-'^Sf.! 


^ 


ms)£>^ 


'J1 


^i\ 


IJI 


^^'A. 




I 



ON THE BLUFF AT ISABELLA. 



comfortable dwelling; here we swung our hammocks, 
and we were well housed against the rain, which fell 
the whole night through. 

At daybreak, next morning, the mocking-birds awoke 
us, and crawling out from under our mosquiteros^ we 
shook the fleas from our blankets and were assailed by 
myriads of mosquitoes and sand-flies. At six o'clock or 



ROUND ABOUT ISABELLA. 245 

SO, after the morning coffee, Washington or "Wash," as 
he was called, guided us along the steep river bank and 
through a dense forest growth in the direction of the 
lost city. 

The morning was cool and fresh, the bushes wet with 
rain, the trees above filled with birds — cooing doves, 
moaning pigeons, chattering parrots, with now and then 
a darting humming-bird, crossing our path like a sun- 
beam. Beyond the woods we passed through a man- 
grove swamp, with the river on one side and steep coral 
rocks on the other, reaching after that a bluff headland, 
covered with densest vegetation of cactus and almost 
impenetrable thickets of spiny plants. 

This bluff faces the west, and is composed of coral 
conglomerate, evidently upheaved, containing branches 
and sections of coral, beautiful in shape and infinite in 
variety of form. This is the plain upon which unvary- 
ing tradition, as well as ancient ruins and environment, 
locate the city founded by Columbus and called by him 
Isabella, after the Queen of Spain. It is not large, con- 
taining perhaps two acres. It slopes gradually upward 
toward steep and densely-wooded hills, on either side 
a half-submerged basin covered with mangroves. The 
soil, in no places deep, becomes thinner and thinner to- 
ward the hills, where there is none at all except in holes 
in the white coral rocks ; and yet, these rocks are covered 
with a dense growth of such hard woods as lignum- vitse, 
and such a mass of thorny bushes and vines as to be well- 
nigh impenetrable. The bluff faces the ocean, west; 
the forest- covered hills lie to the east, while north and 
south are the mangrove swamps. The northern one is 



246 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

sometimes filled with water and looks like a lagoon, and 
when the water comes down from the hills, as it does in 
the rainy season, through a picturesque Canada, and as 
it did when Columbus landed here, it must appear like 
the " lake," as he called it. 

It was around this lake that the first settlement was 
located, and directly in front of it is a beautiful beach 
of yellow sand, where, without doubt, Columbus landed, 
as a channel admitting small vessels through the reefs 
comes directly up to the sands. This beach is two 
hundred and seventy-five feet in length, with a coral 
bluff at either end, and a border of sea-grapes behind 
and between it and the mangroves of the lagoon. Here, 
four hundred years ago, the caravels and carracks dis- 
einbarked their living freight of sea-worn sailors and 
Spanish cavaliers, the horses the cattle and the sheep. 
Here were accumulated the munitions of war, the pro- 
visions, plants, articles for trade and barter, and the 
little beach piled high with the freightage of the ships. 
Even to-day the sands sometimes disclose most interest- 
ing relics of that far-away time when first the products 
of Europe were landed on American soil. I have had 
in my hands a fragment of chain armor and a stone 
ball, which were found here, and I possess pieces of the 
tiles that covered the houses erected by the Spaniards, 
and of the crucibles in which the first gold was smelted. 

The morning sun lay aslant the beautiful beach, and 
cool shadows lurked in the hollows of the rocks, tempt- 
ing us to strip and plunge into the limpid waves that 
lazily lapped the sands. "Wash " was dubious about 
this experiment, because the water inside the reefs is 



ROUND ABOUT ISABELLA. 247 

sometimes alive with barracudas, more dreaded by the 
natives than the sharks ; but we paddled about in great 
glee, and emerged refreshed and unharmed. After 
that, and during the week that we were there, a bath 
on the beach in the cool of early morning was our regu- 
lar "refresher." I used to take a big stick in with me, 
plant it firmly in the sand beneath the water, and with 
the stick always within reach swim about to my heart's 
content. And so gentle was the movement of the water 
that the stick would sometimes remain where I had 
placed it till our return, next morning. Many a tropic 
bath have I enjoyed, in river and sea, but the sea-baths 
are the best, and taken at early morning are delightful 
preparatives for the labors of the heated day. The 
morning is always cool, no matter what the day may 
be, and it is a luxury merely to lie on the beach listen- 
ing to the songs of the birds. No less delightful was 
the exhilaration of the plunge, the freedom of a vigor- 
ous swim, and the abandonment of floating listlessly on 
the breast of the wave, looking up skyward into the 
fleecy clouds. 

Lying on my back, and watching the clouds as they 
floated over, I tried to bring back those departed days 
when this solitary beach was populous with soldiery, 
and I imagined the men-at-arms coming here to bathe. 
The clang of metal as they divested themselves of their 
heavy armor, the sigh of relief as they at last stood free 
from the galling steel, and the pleasure that possessed 
them as their brawny arms parted the waves. Yes; 
even the " Great Admiral " must have bathed here, and 
have found at least temporary relief from the thousand 



248 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 



4 



cares that harassed him, as the waters closed around 
him. His serious nature could not find pleasure in the 
bath as a diversion — but history would record fewer 
sins against him to-day, if his taciturnity had been pene- 
trated by these simple delights, and he had allowed 
himself to become as a little child, at one with Nature. 
Nature's children, the Indians, would have suffered less 
at his hands, and letters of gold might to-day record his 
deeds, instead of letters of blood. 

Overlooking the beach, at its southern point, once 
stood, according to tradition and the evidence of visitors 
of fifty years ago, a pillar of masonry, or a monument, 
which formed a conspicuous landmark, visible some dis- 
tance at sea. Local tradition states that this pillar was 
destroyed about fifteen years ago, and the marble tablet 
it bore carried away. It is supposed that it was erected 
by Columbus, to indicate the site of the city to passing 
vessels, and its destruction is attributed to treasure- 
seekers, who blew up its foundations hoping to find it cov- 
ered hidden gold.* It was seen by Mr. Gibbs,of Grand 
Turk Island, in the Bahamas, who, some fifty years ago, 
came here for the purpose of comparing it with two 
similar ones that then existed in the Bahamas, at Grand 
Turk and at Sand Key. He thought that these monu- 
ments were built to commemorate some great and 
similar event, extrinsically connected with the places 
themselves. Be that as it may, the only indication of 
the Isabella monument now, is a hollow in the earth sur- 
rounded by heaps of loose stones. 

* Paper read before the New York Historical Society, sixth of October, 1846, by the 
Hon. George Gibbs, in support of Turk's Island as the Landfall of Columbus. 



ROUND ABOUT ISABELLA. 



249 



Fifty years ago, much, of the original city was visible, 
and in the midst of the forest the traveler saw all the 
remains of the structures erected by Columbus: the 
pillars of the church; remains of the king's storehouse; 
part of the residence of Columbus; the small fortress, 
and a circular battlemented tower. When Mr. Gibbs 



fr 




SITE OF ISABELLA, 

[The first city of the New World.) 



was here he saw the ruins of the church, fifty feet wide 
by one hundred feet long ; now nothing can be seen but 
the faintest outline. Nothing remains here as a struct- 
ure, or of great importance as a ruin : shapeless heaps, 
only, or montones, of stone and brick, with here and 
there a hewn rock, occasional shards of pottery and 



250 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. . 

fragments of tiles. From the northern point of the 
bluff, where the pillar stood, following along the shore, 
there is a semi-lunar-shaped heap of debris about a. 
hundred feet long. A little farther on, at about the 
center, a quadrilateral depression in the soil, where the 
church once stood, and near there are some traces of what 
may have been a fortified wall, and scattered stones. At 
the southern bluff, overlooking the river, and perhaps five 
hundred feet from the pillar-site, is the most conspicuous. 
inonton^ or heap of stones, mixed together with tiles. 
This is conjectured to have been the "king's house" 
or the smelting works, where the gold was assayed that 
the explorers brought from the mountains. I found 
several hewn stones here, as well as heaps of tiles, and 
what we think were the fragments of crucibles. This 
is the most commanding point of the bluff, and it ap- 
pears possible that the river, though now some distance 
away, once laved the base of the cliff. Not far away, 
buried in the woods, is another large heap of stones and 
bricks near a hole some ten feet deep. This is sup- 
posed to have been the powder-magazine, and has often 
been searched for treasure. 

The week previous to my visit, a party of naval offi- 
cers, from the United States steamer Enterprise^ made 
a hasty examination of the plateau, and their excellent 
report substantially verifies my own. They concur with 
me that the place was well intended for defense, locally 
advantageous as the site for a small settlement, but illy- 
adapted to the requirements of a large and permanent 
population. The entire plateau is now covered with 
dense thickets of thorny and spiny plants, chiefly cacti,, 



I 



ROUND ABOUT ISABELLA. 251 

very difficult to penetrate, but presenting strange and 
beautiful shapes, and through them most entrancing 
glimpses of the bay, the river, and the sea. It is a 
beautiful site for a camp, and notwithstanding the dif- 
ficulties of penetrating the undergrowth, I wandered 
about in great delight, visiting the bluff at sunrise, at 
sunset, and at heated noon. 

The beauty of the place was not the motive that in- 
duced Columbus to settle here, but probably its con- 
tiguity to the gold region of the Cibao; for, by passing 
up the Bajo Bonico, and then crossing the plain beyond, 
the mountain-pass could be reached that gave entrance 
into this region. It is difficult to account for the total 
disappearance of all the buildings in the comparatively 
short space of four hundred years, unless the stories 
are true that many of the best buildings of Puerto 
Plata are built out of the rocks taken from Isabella. 
Time alone would not cause this marvelously rapid dis- 
appearance, and the hand of the vandal has been more 
destructive than the tooth of time. 

Founded as Isabella was, in order to give access to 
the interior mines, as soon as the line of forts was estab- 
lished, in 1494 and 1495, t^® tide turned thence, and 
toward Santo Domingo City in 1496, and it was soon 
after abandoned. We know that after the men and 
cargoes were landed and the settlement well begun, 
Columbus cast about for means of communication with 
the gold-country, and selecting a small body of adventu- 
rous men, he sent them out to explore. They broke 
through the mountain wall beyond the plain and fol- 
lowed an Indian trail throueh its defiles to the beautiful 



252 



IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 



I 



valley beyond. Before them then lay the valley of the 
Yaqui, and along its banks they marched far into the 
interior region of the Cibao, where they discovered a 
great deal of gold, in nuggets and grains, the sands of 
the rivers glistening with it. This was the first Span- 
ish expedition into the interior, and the gold brought 




MAP OF ISABELLA. 



out was sent to Spain in the fleet that returned in 
f February, 1494. 

It did not take long to ascertain the little that re- 
mained of Isabella — a day or two did that — but the 
remainder of a week was consumed in proving what was 
not there. This is always the task of the explorer. He 
must investigate and search out, not alone the actuali- 
ties, but the fallacies and distorted statements. What 



ROUND ABOUT ISABELLA. 253 

I refer to is this: there was a tradition current that the 
original church built by Columbus was not at the bluff, 
but deep in the forest. Furthermore, it was said that it 
remained even now, only partially in ruins and retaining 
much of its ornamentation. This, of course, fired my 
imagination and stimulated my desire for research, and 
I at once made careful inquiry. "Wash" Banks de- 
clared that he himself had seen it; but when I had dis- 
patched him on an exploring expedition all by himself, 
the result was that there was no result, though he 
declared the ruins existed nine years ago, and that he 
believed they had been removed bodily, possibly by the 
spirits, which, as everybody knew, haunted the site 
of dead Isabella. He then bethought himself of a 
native who had seen it within a year, while out in the 
woods hunting wild hogs. This man was a mahogany- 
cutter, who was drifting some mahogany logs down 
the river, and wouldn't reach us until the next day. 
When he arrived, he was not very prepossessing; he 
was stark naked and the color of the mahogany logs he 
had brought along ; for he had been two days wading 
and swimming the river, pushing the logs ahead of him. 
He rolled the timbers upon the bank and left them 
there, in just the place where another lot had been left, 
which had been carried out to sea and lost, the last time 
the river came down in a freshet. 

This mahogany- cutter had been working several days 
to earn a dollar and twenty-five cents, which he did not 
get after he had earned it. He received only an order on 
a merchant at Puerto Plata for that amount, and for this 
he would have to travel one hundred miles. Even then, 



254 



IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 



he would find that one dollar and twenty-five cents cash 
was a euphemism for "goods," to the value of perhaps 
sixty cents. It was hard for the poor fellow ; but I 
had little sympathy for him, because, when asked what 
he would take to g"uide us to the ruins, he replied very 




THE CACTUS-COVEKED RUINS OP ISABELLA. 

promptly, "Twenty-five dollars." He claimed to pos- 
sess an exclusive right in the ruins and meant to make 
me pay for it; but as I made a point of "no ruins no 
pay," we did not conclude a negotiation. 

It so happened that an old woman in the kitchen had 
overheard the man describe the place to a friend, as he 
stepped in to light his pipe, and when he had gone she 
offered to guide us. So one morning we started out — 



ROUND ABOUT ISABELLA. 255 

or at least we essayed a start, for it always takes these 
people a long while to be about to begin. Arrived at 
the bluff, I separated my party, placing- them within 
hail of each other, and covering the entire plateau as 
well as the hillside. 

We worked carefully, traversing the woods in every 
direction, but without result. We crawled through 
thickets and briers, sweltering in the terrible heat, 
pestered with mosquitoes and sand-flies, but meeting 
with no noxious insects. The bushes were thickly 
hung with spider-webs, occupied by bad-looking owners ; 
but we did not encounter, fortunately, the very poisonous 
ground spider, whose sting is death, though it is abun- 
dant there. After some hours, we all met, by appoint- 
ment, in the Canada at the head of the lagoon, and after 
refreshing ourselves started again, probing the woods 
in every direction, but without any reward. 

The old lady had worked as hard as an}^ of the party, 
and seemed as little fatigued. They called her La Vieja, 
or the old woman. When La Vieja saw that we had 
exhausted our endeavors, she came to the rescue with a 
proposition to invoke the powers that hide in darkness, 
with which she professed to be familiar. In order to 
humor her, I assented, and she led us back to the fort 
at the bluff, and then to the poso, or the well, in the 
woods. Here she halted at the foot of a tree. Pro- 
ducing from her ragged garments a candle made by her 
•own hands, of the brown wax of native bees, she lighted 
it, and commanded us all to keep silence. Then, care- 
fully protecting the flames from the wind, she mumbled 
something over it, watching anxiously the direction of 



256 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

the smoke, and then said, pointing east, "Go there; that 
way is the capilla.''' So I started my men off east, La 
Vieja with them, ranging toward the hillside. But 
they soon came back exhausted, every one, and cast 
themselves down upon the sands beneath the sea-grapes 
where I was awaiting them. La Vieja was not at all 
downcast at the failure of her incantation, but was ex- 
ceedingly chipper, and walked home with us through 
the terrible heat without showing the least fatigue. 
And so our hunt for the ruin ended. 

In the Smithsonian Museum, at Washington, are two 
idols of carved wood, from the island of Santo Domingo, 
grotesque in appearance and of unknown antiquity. No- 
one knew where they were found, or their history, un- 
til I stumbled upon the information here at Isabella. 
" Wash " brought an old negro, with bushy brows, and. 
mounted on a jackass all too small, to the door, one day, 
and explained that he was the man who had found them, 
and that he would conduct me to the cave in which 
they were taken. We walked an hour through the 
woods on the hill, over the narrow trails made by 
the wood-cutters, to a slope where, half-hidden in the 
thickets, was the yawning mouth of the cavern. 

Old " Coco," the bushy-browed negro, showed me the 
shelf of rock upon which the idols were sitting when he 
discovered them. He came upon them suddenly, as 
he was cutting lignum- vitas, some fifteen years ago, 
having had no previous warning of the cave's existence. 
He was so frightened that he was completely paralyzed, 
and dropped on a rock, unable to move his eyes from 
those hideous and grotesque beings which grinned at 



ROUND ABOUT ISABELLA. 



257 



him from the cave's mouth. He, of course, thought 
them alive; but as they did not offer to get down, he 
recovered confidence, and advanced to examine them. 
Then he saw their character, took them down, and 
carried them home with him. Poor old idols ! they had 
been sitting there, proba- 
bly, for nearly or quite four 
hundred years, waiting pa- 
tiently for some enchanter 
to come along and remove 
the spell that held them 
there. Theyhad been placed 
there, in all probability, by 
the last of the Indians who 
once resided here, either to 
save them from falling into 
the hands of the Spaniards, 
or to be worshiped in secret, 
guarded by their priests. 
"Coco" thought they were 
there as guardians of treas- 
ure buried in the cave, though 
he found no other articles at 
the time of the discovery. 
We penetrated the cavern 
perhaps sixty feet, and then could get no farther, 
owing to the masses of rock in the way, probably dis- 
lodged by an earthquake. No living thing was observed 
there except small crabs and numerous cockroaches. 

Having investigated everything that had been the 
object of the journey, after a week's residence here I 




coco's IDOL. 

(Now in the Smithsonian Institution.) 



258 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

concluded it was time to go. But I was loath to leave 
this pleasant place, and at night strolled up the hill and 
into the woods to a point that must have been a favorite 
■outlook with the early settlers — those poor unfortunates 
who perished here so far from home and friends. Little 
wonder that Columbus was execrated, but great wonder 
that he was not killed, by these dupes of his ambition. 
They died so rapidly that consternation seized them, 
and sickly Isabella was abandoned as soon as the in- 
terior was opened to adventure. 

They were fine hidalgos, these victims of Isabella, 
whose ghosts yet retain the traditions of departed great- 
ness and high-bred courtesy, for they yet haunt these 
same woods, it is said, lingering in the ruins. They 
can be distinguished from ordinary and common spirits 
by their invariable politeness to a stranger; for some of 
them, it is declared, have been encountered here, and, 
though wrapped in gloomy meditation, they courteously 
returned the salutes, which indicates innate refinement 
in ghosts that have been running wild in the woods four 
hundred years. 

I waited late, hoping to get a glimpse of one, and 
much regretted that there was no moon ; but the sun 
descended, the shadows grew to shades, and the woods 
became black long before I left them ; and I cannot say 
that I saw an Isabella ghost. The night before our 
departure, the horses were sent over by Don Ricardo; 
their fodder of Guinea-grass was piled before them, and 
they themselves were tethered to the fence. There 
they remained through the night, and we took an early 
departure for Puerto Plata on the morrow. 



XII. 



WHERE THE FIRST GOLD WAS FOUND. 



I 




"N what spot and at ^vhat time was 
found the first American gold? 
^ ^."-^ We know that the yellow metal 

/^r^iiv was first seen by Columbus in posses- 
sion of the natives of Guanahani, in 
the Bahamas, but only rarely and in 
minute particles. As the Spaniards 
progressed through the islands, and 
reached the coast of Cuba, evidences 
of a golden country to the south 
grew stronger; but it was not until the 
coast of Haiti was reached that indubitable 
proof was obtained that the region of riches 
was not far away. 

Just before the shipwreck of the Santa 
Maria, golden ornaments were brought them by the 
natives, in such quantity that even the most skeptical 
were convinced. The Indian chieftain, Guacanagari, 
gave Columbus some gold and told him of Cibao, in the 
mountains, which Columbus was certain must be the 
Oriental Cipango, or Japan, so long and vainly sought. 

259 




260 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS, 

It is to this veritable Cibao, which yet retains its In- 
dian name, the similarity of which to Cipango deceived 
Columbus, and which yet yields nuggets of purest gold, 
that I shall conduct my readers in this foray into fields 
historic. The first voyage accomplished and the first 
settlement effected, Columbus next turned his attention 
to the development of the interior of the island, and the 
discovery of the gold region. 

Isabella, the first city founded in the New World, was- 
an unfortunate selection as the site for a settlement. 
Its immediate environment of mangrove swamps was 
inimical to health ; its harbor was not a secure one for 
large ships ; its soil was scant and poor, and added to 
these it was so crowded upon by the rocky hills, and 
hemmed in by river and lagoon, as not to permit of ex- 
pansion. In fact, it was a fairly good situation for a 
camp or a village, but not ample enough for a city. It 
had been planted by Columbus solely with a view to its 
contiguity to the gold region, and unless gold in abun- 
dance could be found in the hills and mountains within 
reach of the sea, the enemies of the Admiral could 
prove that he had committed a blunder in his initial 
settlement, which would surely injure his cause at the 
court of Spain. 

A preliminary expedition had brought back sufficient 
gold to warrant the belief that it existed in quantity, and 
could be found in abundance by systematic exploration. 
This gold was sent home by the return fleet to Spain,, 
together with a most flattering account of the country. 
Then, anxious to bring to light the hidden treasure in 
the mountains, and at the same time to pacify the 



WHERE THE FIRST GOLD WAS FOUND. 2(51 

haughty spirits of his insubordinate cavaliers, Columbus 
organized a second expedition into the Cibao region, 
and assumed personal command. The previous one 
had been merely a reconnoissance ; this one was to have 
for its object the founding of a fort. It was also in- 
tended that the warlike equipment and display should 
be such that the Indians would be impressed with the 
strength and resources of the strangers, and perceive 
the futility of subsequent attack upon the isolated out- 
post then projected. 

The total population of Isabella at this time was 
about one thousand men, and of this number Columbus 
selected four hundred of the choicest spirits to accom- 
pany him on this expedition. They marched up the 
main river bank, rejoicing to escape their irksome con- 
finement on the plain between the mangrove swamps. 
Flags were flying, drums beating, and trumpets send- 
ing forth their inspiring sounds, while in the semi- 
obscurity of the forest glittered helm and corselet, lance 
and arquebuse. 

The first day's march took them across the plain be- 
tween the sea and mountain range, at the foot of which 
the weary soldiers encamped for the night. Next day 
they began the ascent of the range ; and as the tortuous 
Indian trail would not suffice for the passage of this body 
of men, with cavalry and munitions of war, it was neces- 
sary to open a road. Then it was that the galliard 
young cavaliers volunteered their services, burning with 
an enthusiasm hitherto repressed amid the dismal sur- 
roundings of Isabella. By their energy and example a 
road was opened through the mountain gorge. It is 



262 



IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 



the only trail to-day at this point, and it still bears the 
name given to it — El Puerto de los Cahallcros^ the 
" Hidalgos' Pass," in token of their achievement. 

Among the many photographs that I have taken of, 
the scenes identified with the voyages of Columbus, 
none has the peculiar interest attaching to it possessed 




VIEW ON THE BAJO-BONICO NEAR THE HIDALGOS' PASS. 



by one I secured when at Isabella from the right bank 
of its river, the Bajo-Bonico, showing the trail of the 
cavaliers across the plain, and the Monte-Cristi mount- 
ains with the Puerto de los Hidalgos. The scene is 
almost as wild of aspect as at that time, now four hun- 
dred years past, when the forest stirred with martial 
life. Life here is more listless than at that time, also,. 



WHERE THE FIRST GOLD WAS FOUND. 263' 

for the wheels of the chariot have sped by it never to 
return, and the few people here are inert and dead 
to passing events. 

The Spaniards who marched through the defile 
cleared by the cavaliers, saw before them the mag- 
nificent valley of the Yaqui, where verdant plain and 
luxuriant forest alternated, strung upon a noble river's 
silver chain. They did not know it then, but it was the 
same river seen by Columbus just a year before, in Jan- 
uary, 1493, and named by him the Rio del Oro, or the 
River of Gold, from the particles of gold that clung to 
the hoops of the water-casks, and which gave promise 
of a rich country in the interior. This hope they were 
nov/ about to realize, and with elastic step they marched 
forward, up the valley and into the mountains. 

For two days they continued their march, meeting 
everywhere with the most hospitable treatment from 
the natives, who dwelt here in idyllic ease and content- 
ment. The Indians were at first afraid of the horses, 
and of the men clad in shining armor; but, when once 
their confidence was won, they were only too anxious to 
serve the invading strangers, and place before them all 
their little wealth. This was, in all probability, the 
first expedition in which horses were used in the New 
World. On the evening of the second day, the Span- 
iards came to a different country, where the mountains 
not only reached down into the valley, but rose before, 
impeding progress. Beyond this point, next day, the 
army entered upon the veritable Cibao — the stony 
region, rugged and mountainous — the streams of which 
indeed ran over sands glistening with gold. 



264 



IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 



Convinced that he was now at the portal to the hills 
of gold, Columbus concluded to penetrate no farther, 
but to erect here a fortress to serve as an outpost, and 




THE AMERICAN FEKRY ACROSS THE YAQUI. 



leave a garrison to guard this region, conjecturally so 
rich in the precious ore and sands. He chose a head- 
land, half-surrounded by a crystal river, in the bed of 
which jasper, porphyry and golden grains were found. 
On this spot he caused to be erected a wooden tower, 
protected on the land side by a ditch, and with the clear- 
running stream in front. This fortress was soon com- 
pleted, and as it was built on the bank of the river 
Yanique, it was given the name by which .it is still 
\inorwn — Saiito Tomas de Yanico. 

Fifty years ago the site was seen by an English gen- 
tleman, who found the ditch in good condition, as well 



WHERE THE FIRST GOLD WAS FOUND. 267 

as the entrance and covert ways for descending to the 
river. This was the first outpost established away from 
the coast, and, if we include Navidad, the third attempt 
at planting a settlement; it took place about the middle 
of January, 1494. While the fortress was being built, 
active exploration of the country adjacent was going on, 
and glowing reports brought in of its richness. When 
the Indians residing along the banks of the river 
learned of the desire of the strangers to obtain gold, 
they ran to the streams and sifted the sands in their 
primitive way, one of them bringing a nugget of virgin 
gold of an ounce in weight, and which he gladly ex- 
changed for a paltry hawk's bell. To-day, as at the time 
of the Indians, the inhabitants here gather a golden 
harvest from the streams. When they need a little 
money they go to the streams and wash it out of the 
sands. I secured for the Exposition one of their prim- 
itive washers , it is merely a shallow dish whittled out 
of a slab, but with it the owner had washed large sums 
out of the earth and sand of the stream flowing past her 
door. 

The Spaniards found much gold in the sands and in 
pockets, nearly all surface indications, but they never 
touched the real treasure-vault. That lies deep-buried 
in the ail-but inaccessible hills, and, as the great Hum- 
boldt has declared, what the Spaniards got was the sur- 
face accumulation of centuries, and the first Europeans 
gathered it all in a comparatively short time. But the 
real source of supply has never been touched; and 
whereas what has been found is like the scattered 
flakes of snow before a storm, what remains may be 



268 



IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 



1 



compared to the boreal snow fields that have never lost 
their stores. ' ^ 

Santo Tomas lies about six hours' distant, by horse, 
from Santiago de los Caballeros, one of the oldest towns 
in the island. Santiago itself is difficult to reach, being 
only accessible from the coast by a trail horrible in its 

pitfalls and mud- 
holes, requiring a 
day and a night to 
traverse. From 
Santiago my com- 
panion was Senor 
Don Juan J. Hun- 
gria, editor of the 
leading paper of 
Santiago, the £co 
del Pueblo, and he 
took along a friend 
from the country, 
who rode the most 
magnificent gray 
stallion I have seen in the island. We left Santiago on 
a beautiful day in May, 1892, well-mounted, and with 
a peon riding atop a small mountain of provender, car- 
ried by a stout mule. Riding down to the river Yaqui, 
which is here a broad and swift-flowing stream, muddy 
and turbulent, we crossed its raging flood in a ferry- 
boat of unique construction, owned and operated by the 
only American in this region. He had drifted here 
in search of gold, but had met with the customary 
fortune of gold seekers in general, and had finally 




"THEY BUILT A WOODEN TOWEE. 



ii 



WHERE THE FIRST GOLD WAS FOUND. 269 

settled down to a legitimate and profitable occupation 
as ferryman. 

Leaving the river, and turning our backs upon the 
beautiful city, we entered upon the country trail with 
good heart and in high spirits. The scenery was grand 
but solitary, there being but few houses or huts along 
the trail, and the woods were silent and sad. 

After an hour or so, we crossed a small stream, with 
which we were destined to become well acquainted 
before the journey was over, as we crossed it, my 
friends said, above one hundred times. It was the same 
stream the first Spaniards had found and followed in 
their search for gold, so many years before, and I 
viewed its every feature with exceeding attention. I 
am sure my readers will appreciate my interest in this 
region, which had such a share in the beginnings of 
American history, and will understand my enthusiasm. 

Climbing some steep hills, we finally sighted the little 
hamlet of Santo Tomas, lying in a hollow. Arrived 
at the fort ale za^ we at first saw nothing to indicate 
ruins, or even remains ; but a peon living here guided 
us through the fields to a bluff headland, covered with 
low trees, and there we saw that of which we had come 
in search — the outlines of an earthwork and a deep 
ditch, all that remained of the fortress of Santo Tomas, 
erected by Columbus four hundred years ago. 

Excavations were then being made to obtain articles 
for the Centenary at Madrid, and for our own Exposi- 
tion. But where was the river — the Yanico, with its 
golden sands, which was the reason for the building of 
the fort ? A low murmur of running water fell upon 



I 



270 



IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 



our ears, and following the sound we came to that verit- 
able stream, deep hidden between steep banks, and purl- 
ing- over rounded pebbles. It was inclosed between walls 
of rose-apple-trees, then in blossom, and was of itself 




'rj'fr>/'t' 'J 



VIEW OF SA:NTIAG0, across the YAQUl. 






so attractive that it needed not the tradition of gold to 
enhance its attractiveness. Here was the spot where 
the first military post was established, away from the 
coast, and isolated from all human intercourse. When 
it was completed, this fortress was placed in charge of 
one of the bravest soldiers in the service of Columbus: 
Pedro Margarite, a noble Catalonian, and Knight of the 
Order of Santiago, in command of fifty-six men. 



WHERE THE FIRST GOLD WAS FOUND. 271 

This done, Columbus returned leisurely to Isabella, 
lingering at the Indian villages and cultivating friendly 
relations with the aborigines. The hospitality of the 
latter was excessive, and their kindness to the strangers 
greatly in excess of the deserts of these cruel invaders, 
who were overwhelmed with everything these simple 
people possessed. Leaving these happy dwellers in 
this vale of indolence and plenty, Columbus at last 
withdrew his troops through the pass of the Hidalgos. 

But no sooner had Columbus reached Isabella, than a 
messenger from Margarite was at his heels, with the 
startling news that the Indians were manifesting un- 
friendly feelings and withdrawing from the vicinity of 
the fort. The fate of Navidad, it seems, whose garrison 
was massacred the year previous, by Caonabo, must 
have been forgotten, for the soldiers of Santo Tomas 
gave themselves over to the same passions that wrought 
the destruction of their compatriots. Columbus sent 
back a re-enforcement of fifty men, and this served tem- 
porarily to check the advance of the mountain Indians 
under Caonabo; but the fire kindled by Spanish atro- 
cities was smoldering, and the fierce cacique was mass- 
ing his warriors for a descent upon the fort. He had 
preserved an ominous silence since the massacre at 
Navidad, even holding aloof when his territory was 
invaded ; but the Spaniards were to hear from him — 
they were to learn that not all the caciques were like 
Guacanagari, and that one at least had the spirit to 
resent their dastardly affronts. 

In order to relieve the congested condition of Isa- 
bella, and give scope for the enterprise of his chafing 



272 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

cavaliers, Columbus decided to dispose the bulk of his 
troops in the interior, where they could obtain needed 
exercise, live on the country without charge, and make a 
protracted search for gold. He sent Alonzo de Ojeda 
to relieve Margariteat Santo Tomas, and the latter took 
charge of the main army of some five hundred men 
and explored the Cibao. Having thus dispatched the 
main body of the army into the interior, Columbus 
placed the affairs of Isabella in the hands of a junta^ 
presided over by his brother, Don Diego Columbus, and 
set out upon another voyage of discovery along the south 
coast of Cuba. 

Before his return great changes were wrought in the 
condition of affairs; the storm burst upon the garrison 
of Santo Tomas, and the commander was kept penned 
within the fort a long while before he could sally out 
and disperse the Indians. 

This denuded piece of ground, surrounded now with 
the forest, and without a trace of the structure erected 
here by the Spaniards, is all there is to remind us of 
those stirring times and those valorous deeds. It was 
a place to dream in a while ; but we had no time to lose, 
and after photographing the salient features of fort and 
river, and obtaining from the family residing here some 
relics of the Indian times, we set out to depart. 

We were among the pines, and in fact Santo Tomas '■< 
is in the region of pines, where the air is delicious and 
pure. We rode over the hills and through deep gulches 
till it became so dark that we could not see before us ; 
then appeared signs of the village of San Jose de las 
Matas, 



WHERE THE FIRST GOLD WAS FOUND. 



273 



No one expected us there, for visitors rarely troubled 
the place, but Don Juan knew the parish priest and felt 
sure of a welcome. A welcome we did get and a hearty 
one; but the poor padre had neither provender for us 
nor the wherewithal to buy it. We were dripping- with 




THE SITE OF THE TOWER OF SANTO TOMAS. 



water, for it had rained upon us as the village was 
reached, and our poor beasts were shivering with cold. 
Shelter was at once forthcoming, and some of the peo- 
'ple were aroused to open the only shop, where I bought 
some eggs, ham and drinkables, returning with them to 
the priest's house, where we soon feasted merrily. 

The padre was thin and emaciated, but though an 
ascetic he was hearty withal, and loved good cheer with 



274 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

the rest of us. He had a little garden behind his house 
with a papaw in it, some sparse shrubbery, and various 
things that indicated a liking for the grotesque — such as 
a little man of bronze perched on a pillar, and weather- 
vanes of queer shapes. He gave us hammocks to sleep 
in, and in the morning took me to the church and the 
goldsmith's shop, where I found specimens of gold from 
the nearest rivers. The goldsmith lived in a hut with 
a mud floor and a roof of thatch, his shop being merely 
a corner with a bench in it. 

His instruments and tools were of the simplest kind, 
and to try the gold that was brought him he rubbed it 
upon a curious black stone; this I found to be an In- 
dian celt, and after much bargaining bought it of him. 
This celt is beautifully polished and of perfect shape, 
of a dark-green color, and may have been used by the 
Indians as a chisel or knife. 

I bought also some dust and flakes of gold, which I 
still have, and some more gold-dust of the neighbors. 
For this is the center of the operations carried on by 
the first gold-seekers after Santo Tomas was founded. 
But still, although gold has been found here for so long 
a time, and is still found, all the dwellers here are very 
poor. They are extremely lazy and improvident; and 
when they need anything they merely run over to one 
of the streams and wash out enough gold to last them 
a while, and then live on it so long as it will last, repeat- 
ing this operation next time their necessities get oppres- 
sive. Thus they live, from hand to mouth, and so their 
ancestors lived before them. 

In the church the padre had a small bell which, he 



WHERE THE FIRST GOLD WAS FOUND. 



275 



told me, had been taken out of the ruins of the first city 
founded in this region — the old Jacagua, near Santiago. 
He ofEered it to mS, and I accepted it for the Exposi- 
tion, promising in exchange a new one. I had done the 
same for the church of Santo Cerro, not far away, the 
year before, and even then they were calling the people 





,,,-^.'1 



THE BED OF THE RIVER YANICO. 

(" The River of the Golden Sands.") 

to worship with the bell I had sent them. The church 
at San Jose is very old and massive, and has stood at 
least three hundred years. 

After the padre hsid performed the functions at morn- 
ing mass, he went with us about the town, and when we 



< 



276 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

left accompanied us a good bit on our journey. The 
ride back was delightful, most of the way through 
forests of tropical trees, in the branches of which the 
pigeons and doves cooed contentedly, and parrots innu- 
merable chattered noisily. We were loaded down with 
our plunderings, and our little mule groaned desper- 
ately at the load the peon put upon her, for the bell 
the padre had given us weighed well, and there were 
cutlasses and swords of the time of the conquistador es^ 
pottery, iron spurs, and similar "finds" of times most 
ancient. 

Through the fragrant woods, that were as dense, as 
delicious, and as new as at the time Columbus saw 
them, we rode happily, the hoof-beats of our horses 
beating rhythmic time upon the stony ground, and the 
bell of the padre ever and anon sending its metallic 
note out into the woods that it had traversed centuries 
before. 

And should you come across an ancient bell from Santo 
Domingo, at our great Exposition, labeled from ''' Jaca- 
gua. Ancient Santiago, " you will know that is our old 
relic of the woods of Santo Tomas, and is the same one 
that, probably, called religious men together years and 
years before our country had a name. 



XIII. 

THE PORT OF THE SILVER MOUNTAIN. 

A DIFFERENT coast character greeted me as I went 
on deck the morning after leaving Cape Haitien. 
It was more open and less gloomy, yet not so rankly lux- 
uriant. This, too, is the difference between the people 
of the respective republics of Haiti and Santo Domingo : 
in the one they are lapsing into the tropical savagery of 
their own rank forests; in the other, while yet buried in 
the gloom of their sad heritage of woe, they are still 
struggling toward the light. They are open and frank, 
yet suspicious of the motives of strangers ; but, at least 
on the surface, are hospitably inclined and disposed to 
grant to every one his face value. 

The town of Puerto Plata, lying at the foot of its 
silver-capped mountain, is brighter, more cleanly, and 
in general appearance more progressive, than the coast 
towns of Haiti, about which hangs ever an air of deso- 
lation and decay. This town has the most attractive 
situation of any I have seen in Santo Domingo, with 
its small, land-locked bay, its green slopes covered with 
tropical gardens, and the adjacent valleys filled with 
sugar-cane. The most conspicuous object is the old 

277 



278 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

fort on the point that makes the harbor. Two or three 
great guns are mounted here; and they point toward 
the town — ^not out at sea — as the island's only enemies 
are of her own people. 

The customs officials who came off to meet us, seemed 
to partake of the general neatness and thrift, for they 
were well-dressed, courteous and alert. With an air of 
honesty and good intent, the boatman with whom I bar- 
gained for passage to the shore, "took me in and did 
forme," and caused the milk of human kindness that 
had surged around my heart, to curdle at his perfidy. 

After many encounters with boatmen and hackmen 
the world over, this is my advice : treat with them as if 
arranging terms with an enemy; stand up squarely and 
tell them that you know their rates are exorbitant, no 
matter what their rates may be, and do not relax your 
rigidity till well out of their reach. If you meet them 
afterward, give them whatever you like, but purely as a 
gratuity; then they will respect you as a man of sense, 
for the grit that is in you, and not for your money. 

But I was taken at a disadvantage. My feeling of 
gratitude at my escape from Haiti, and the softening in- 
fluences of the beautiful landscape, rendered me an 
easy victim to the wiles of the boatman. I made what I 
thought was a very good bargain for the transportation 
of myself and effects to the shore; but I paid the ras- 
cal in advance, and there is where the trouble came in. 
Under the plea that the boat was overloaded, he pushed 
off with my luggage, promising to return shortly for 
me. When he got about half-way to shore, I saw, to^ 
my horror, an ox-cart draw up alongside the boat, and 



THE PORT OF THE SILVER MOUNTAIN. 



279 



all my effects transferred to the hands of a stranger 
whom I had never seen, and might never see again. 
Then I knew I was in the hands of the Philistines, for 
I had not even the semblance of a " capitulation " with 
that ox-cart man, and he had my goods. 

Of what avail to stamp upon the deck; to vow that 
you would have the life and blood of that boatman, that 




LOADING A BULL CART. 



you would not have your luggage go by that route; and 
that the authorities should hear of this outrage, when 
the man was out of ear-shot, and the luggage already 
in possession of a villain with murderous visage and a 
knife in his belt? What, indeed? It seemed a long 
half-hour before the pirate returned, but when he did. 



280 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

he had the most energetic Castilian that my acquaint- 
ance with the Spanish language permitted me to express. 
It did not matter, as I knew it would not ; but I had the 
happiness of restoring, in a measure, my outraged equi- 
librium, and of causing a temporary flutter in the morn- 
ing calm. And the worst of it was that, as I was rowed 
ashore, I met the consular barge, pulled by six oars and 
with the American flag at the stern, coming out to con- 
vey me to the shore. It all came of arriving too early 
in the morning, for if it had been later, the Consul 
would have been on hand to receive me. 

Arrived at the customs, I found the grinning villain 
of the ox-cart awaiting me — for all luggage must be 
examined before entry — and I then expected another 
" row " with these officials. But, whatever the charac- 
ter of the boatmen, I knew the officials were gentlemen 
— and there was no trouble about the effects. 

In truth, I have never allowed the customs offlcials of 
any island to examine my luggage, for, traveling as the 
accredited representative of my Government, I always 
held it to be an insult to that Government to permit the 
effects of its agent to be disturbed. If I were not worthy 
of trust, I should not have held the position; holding 
that position, I merely demanded the recognition due 
me, not as an individual, but as the representative of a 
powerful and friendly government. To their credit be 
it said, the insular customs always recognized the jus- 
tice of my position, and I am sure were only too glad to 
extend a courtesy that cost them nothing. 

The cartman did not wait to hear my opinion on dip- 
lomatic amenities, but hastened off, and was out of sight 



THE PORT OF THE SILVER MOUNTAIN. 281 

before the officials and myself had half-performed the 
ceremony of assuring each other of the love borne and 
the respect entertained for our mutual and respective 
governments. After that, a cigarette or two, a for- 
mal and then an effusive shaking of hands, a ceremoni- 
ous lifting of hats, a parting salutation and renewed 
expressions of mutual good-will, esteem, admiration 
even, and I tore myself away, followed by the adieus of 
my new friends. 

And I found the cartman awaiting my coming. He 
had stowed away the trunks in a room assigned me at 
the hotel, and was only waiting to present his little bill, 
that was all ! It was not the bill that concerned me ; it 
was the attitude of the man — his evident intention to 
take me by the throat and cram that bill into my system. 
So, with inward trepidation, though I flatter myself out- 
wardly calm, I demanded his price. 

" Four dollars." 

*' Ciianto f " I thundered. 

Firmly, but respectfully, the man replied, '•^ Ciiatro.'' 

I drew forth two dollars and extended it to him. He 
spurned it with a glance of scorn that I couldn't have 
duplicated for the life of me. He also t03"ed quietly 
with the huge knife and revolver in his belt. Then, 
though, I will confess, with a creeping sensation along 
my spine, I turned my back upon him, and shut the door 
in his face. I busied myself with opening my trunks, 
at the same time wondering at which point the door 
would be perforated by the bad man's bullets. A little 
later, hearing the ox-cart move off, I peeped out and 
saw him going away. But he came back, and he kept 



282 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

coming, during two days. Our conversation at these 
interviews consisted of: 

' ' Ciianto ? " 

" Cuatro pesos." 

" And you won't take two? " 

"Senor, I'll perish first." 

" Then perish." 

Exit cartman. I might have complained to the 
police and had him arrested; but the farce was rather 
amusing, and I liked to keep it up. 

Finally, he came up with a broad grin on his dirty 
face, and said he would take two dollars. And as soon 
as it was safely in his possession, he asked me humbly 
if I would give him one dollar (the regular price, by the 
way), to take the same things back to the boat. His 
change of demeanor had been brought about by a lecture 
he and \ns> confreres had received from the alcalde, who, 
hearing of the affair, had assembled them all, and as- 
sured them that at the first intimation of another attempt 
at fraud, he would revoke their licenses, and send the 
whole lot to the calaboose. 

The Hotel Cibao is the best in the place, and the 
landlady made me as comfortable as possible, though 
the mosquitoes of Puerto Plata are the most active and 
utterly depraved of any I have ever encountered. The 
servants at the "Cibao" smoked at all times, even 
while waiting on the table and making up the beds. 
And they smoked such rank, evil-looking and foul- 
smelling cigars that my feelings almost overcome me 
at the reminiscence. 

Although depraved in their tastes, yet they were 



THE PORT OF THE SILVER MOUNTAIN. 283 

assiduoiis in their efforts to please, while our talented 
landlady could converse in any one of the four leading 
languages of the world, or all at once — depending upon 
whether she was discoursing with a boarder, or rating 
a servant for disobedience to orders. 

I found that the generally bright and active appear- 
ance of the town was due to the residence here of some 
very intelligent foreigners, mainly Americans, who had 
initiated enterprises of public benefit and utility. I met 
the best of these, and they exerted themselves to for- 
ward the aims of my mission, and make my stay so- 
cially agreeable. Our Consul, an American long resident 
here, introduced me at the Club del Coniercio^ and to 
the dignitaries of the place, who gave me letters of 
introduction to other influential men in the country, 
which were especially available in the exploration of 
Isabella, already described, and my acquaintance with 
the President of the republic. 

After my return from Isabella, having a week to wait 
for the next coast steamer, I settled down to the busi- 
ness of the Exposition, the British Consul kindly giving 
me the use of the consulate as an office. Over the 
door was the customary shield, with the coat of arms of 
Great Britain. 

One day, as I was within, busily writing, I noticed a 
small boy at the door, evidently lost in rapt admiration 
of the numerous and ferocious lions that adorned the 
shield. They evidently struck his fancy, for he began 
to count them; and it was fortunate for that boy that 
the occupant of the office did not happen to be a "Brit- 
isher," for this is what he said. Regarding the lions 



284 



IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 



aforementioned very intently, he counted them slowly 
as follows: ^'- Dos perros^ tres perros^ ciiatro perros grandes 
— y cinco perritos. " " Two dogs, three dogs — four big 
dogs, and five pups! " 

I dashed out to chastise the little wretch; but he 
looked so innocent and happy that I refrained, and to this 
day that insult to the British crown goes unavenged. 




VIEW OF THE PLAZA AND CHURCH AT PUERTO PLATA. 



The greatest curiosity here is the Sereno, the night- 
watchman, of the real Spanish type, who wears a long 
cape, carries a pike, and swings a lantern. Every half- 
hour through the night he cries out the time, first blow- 
ing a shrill whistle, and ending up with the state of the 
weather. First you hear a click, then a whistle, and 



THE PORT OF THE SILVER MOUNTAIN. 285 

then he lets loose his lungs, at concert pitch. ^'- Las 
nuei'c" (or whatever the hour) " ticinpo screno. Noo-oo- 
oo-oo-ay-ay-ay-vay-vay ^ tee-ce-ee-eni-emin-po-oo say-ay-ay- 
ray-ay-ay-no-o-o." It always frightens the strangers, 
and is an excellent thing for the evil-doers, because they 
can always locate the police. 

It happened that the President of Santo Domingo 
arrived at Puerto Plata during my stay, and I soon had 
the pleasure of an introduction, and an opportunity to 
informally present my papers. He expressed himself 
as desirous to "assist" at our Exposition, but said he 
would have to consult with his cabinet at Santo Domingo 
City, before replying oiificially to the invitation of my 
Government. He was a very able and intelligent man, 
of medium height, slight build, dark mahogany com- 
plexion and close-curled hair, quiet in manner, and not 
given to dress. He spoke English imperfectly, but 
French and Spanish with facility. 

At the time of our meeting he was on his way to 
"pacificate" the Cibao country, this being done by the 
distribution of money to those whom he considered worth 
placating, and the imprisonment of those not having 
that importance. With him was his Secretary of War, 
whose attachment to his person and elevation to office 
illustrates the sagacity of this pacificator of Santo 
Domingo. This secretary formerly held the position 
of collector of the port at the capital ; but the President 
found he was collecting too much for himself and too 
little for the country, so he pondered a while, and then 
promoted him. Nanita, the. collector, had aspirations 
for the presidency, and a strong following, so it would 



286 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

not be politic to antagonize his friends, hence the ' ' pro- 
motion " to the portfolio of war. 

At the time of our visit there were a good many 
Dutch and French engineers engaged in locating the 
line of the railroad from Puerto Plata to Santiago. 
This is an enterprise which, if ever completed, will be a 
disastrous speculation for its promoters, or at least its 
stockholders, as it (the line) connects only the two towns 
of Puerto Plata and Santiago, and has a very rough and 
mountainous country to traverse. 

This port has long been the outlet of the tobacco 
country in the interior, of which Santiago is the center, 
and in the season thousands of horses and mules come 
groaning down the horrible roads, each with a load of 
two hundred and fifty pounds on its back. Their backs 
are raw and bleeding, their tails caked and draggled 
with clay, their legs masses of mud, and their whole 
aspect woe-begone. They travel in droves, without rope 
or bridle, are trained to push on and over all obstacles, 
and have only scant fodder of grass to eat at the end of 
the long and dangerous journey. All the tobacco raised 
here is sent to Germany, as it is too poor for the Ameri- 
can market, and all business is controlled by two or 
three firms. This monopoly of affairs extends even to 
the sale of postage and revenue stamps, which can be 
obtained of but one firm. The same system prevails all 
over the country, making a few big concerns very rich, 
and keeping the bulk of the population very poor. 

It is in Puerto Plata that one sees the bullocks and 
cows pressed into the service of transportation ; not only 
harnessed into carts and drays, but ridden with saddles. 



THE PORT OF THE SILVER MOUNTAIN. 



287 



No more interesting objects present themselves than 
these beasts of burden, with huge aparejos on their 
backs, sometimes covered all over with stalks of sugar- 
cane, and again with bales of tobacco. Boys and girls 
ride them in from the country, leading or guiding each 
beast by means of a great ring through the nose, to 




GIKL ON BULLOCK-BACK. — PUERTO PLATA, 



which a rope is attached. These rings remain in the 
noses permanently, and sometimes have caused the 
breaking away of the cartilage and have been inserted 
afresh — giving the noses of the patient animals a 
ragged appearance. 

The Dominicans have inherited all the cruel traits of 
the Spanish character, including the barbarous treatment 



288 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

of the lower animals, and have them all under subjec- 
tion. At first glance it seems very cruel, and one's 
sympathies go out to the dumb beasts; but as the Domi- 
nicans look at it, if they think of it at all, the choice lies 
between an unruly beast and danger to human life, and 
a tractable animal in complete subjection, and to be 




THE TYPICAL BEAST OF BURDEN. 



handled without harm. Indeed I can hardly recall in 
my years of travel amongst Spanish and Spanish- Ameri- 
can peoples, a dangerous dog in the streets, a refractory 
horse, a kicking mule, or badly-balking donkey. 

After my return from Isabella, I wrote a short article 
for the local paper, the Porvenir, about my visit, and an 
interest was excited that bore fruit the following year 



THE PORT OF THE SILVER MOUNTAIN. 289 

in an expedition to the ruins, by some of the best people 
of the place. They discovered several relics of the 
early times, including a fragment of a coat of mail, 
which they kindly loaned me for the Exposition, and 
also defined the exact site of the first church erected 
here. 

Following upon their discoveries and my reports to 
the Department at Washington, an association of gentle- 
men was organized in Massachusetts, having for its ob- 
ject the erection at Isabella of a monument to commem- 
orate the event of the founding of this church, at the 
head of which were the Rev. Father O'Brien, of Cam- 
bridge, Massachusetts, and Capt. Nathan Appleton of 
Boston. 

Their plans were subsequently changed, the monu- 
ment erected in Boston, and the original scheme en- 
larged to include a church, or chapel, on the site of 
the first Catholic church in America. The necessary 
permission was obtained from the Dominican Govern- 
ment, and a large tract of land most generously do- 
nated by the owner of Isabella, Mr. Passailaigue, to 
whom I myself was indebted for favors during my 
visit. The American Consul secured the clearing of 
a space sufficient for the purpose, and at the time 
of my last call at Puerto Plata — in the midsummer 
of 1892 — all was in readiness for the foundations to 
be laid. 

For the cultivation of a spirit of research, and the 
keeping alive of an interest in history and tradition, 
the people of Santo Domingo are indebted to a resident 
of Puerto Plata, Doctor A. Llenas, who has written 



290 



IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 



much, and published in the local papers valuable arti- 
cles upon the aborigines, the antiquities, and the first 
settlements. 

It was to him that I was indebted for the information 
that led to the recovery of the long-lost anchor of 




WASHERWOMEN OF HAITI. 



Columbus's caravel, in Haiti, and from him I was prom- 
ised the loan of a small but valuable collection of anti- 
quities for the Exposition. Would that the island held 
more of his type, and less of the paltry politicians ; for 
men like him keep alive the spark of civilization, and 
bring the country in touch with the thought and pro- 
gress of the world. 

I left him, and all my good friends of Puerto Plata, 



THE PORT OF THE SILVER MOUNTAIN. 291 

with regret, as the Clyde steamer bore me away toward 
Samana, late one evening. 

The same cartman who had charged me four dollars 
for the transportation of my effects, took them back 
willingly for a dollar, and I had my revenge in photo- 
graphing his bull -team — the cart piled high with the 
Commissioner's luggage — as it stood by the boat, half- 
submerged in the sea. 










XIV. 



SAMANA AND THE BAY OF ARROWS. 

A NIGHT'S run from Puerto Plata, on the slow- 
going, but comfortable Clyde steamer, took me to 
Samana Bay. At daylight we rounded Balandra Head, 
the great commanding headland of the bay. 

This grand promontory is the fore-foot of Morne 
Diablo, the mountain rising behind it, and rests at the 
water's edge like a New World Sphinx. With its great 
granite face looking seaward, and draped in a flowing 
garb of tropic tapestry, Balandra Head guards the most 
magnificent bay, or gulf, in America. I rarely deal in 
superlatives, but in this case, even superlatives cannot 
adequately express one's admiration. From this head- 
land, with its terraced coast line, and its upward sweep 
of forest-growth backward into the clouds, there is a con- 
stant succession of alternate beach and bluff. Beaches 
are palm-bordered, bluffs are forest-crowned, white sand 
glistens in crescentic spaces, deep hollows lie amongst 
the hills, which themselves are cultivable, and frequently 
cultivated, to their very tops. 

The only entrance to the great bay lies well in toward 
the black cliffs, and the steamer glides past the beauti- 

292 



SAMANA AND THE BAY OF ARROWS. 



293 



ful beaches, almost within hail of the cabins behind 
them, and the black men fishing on the shore. Half a 
dozen times since my first acquaintance with Samana, I 
have looked upon this range of hills rising above the 
blue-and-silver shore, and every time my enjoyment of 
the glorious scene has been intense. I have seen many 
other fair places in the world, and do not lack the mate- 




COALIMG STATION. — SAMANA BAY. 



rial for comparison; but this is indeed beyond compare, 
and unique in its own aboriginal beauty. 

Interwoven with its picturesqueness of superficial 
aspect is its fascinating thread of history, leading us 
back to that very first voyage to the New World, when 
•Columbus came here. Coasting easterly from Puerto 



294 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

Plata, on the twelfth of January, 1493, he passed several 
capes, the loftiest and boldest of which, round, and all 
of rock, reminded him of Cape St. Vincent in Portugal, 
the same that is now called Balandra Head. Behind 
this promontory, he found a large bay of at least three 
leagues' breadth, with little islets near the middle. 
Landing in a sheltered bay, he remained some time, and 
discovered here a naked Indian, differing from the others 
in the West, and probably a Carib, who gave him much 
information regarding the unknown islands in the East. 

Later, at another little cove in the woods behind it, 
the Spaniards ran across " a body of fifty Indians, all 
naked, with coarse hair as long as the women wear it 
in Castile, the backs of their heads adorned with parrots' 
feathers, and in their hands big bows and arrows." 

At first appearing friendly, these Indians suddenly 
changed front, assumed a hostile attitude, and attacked 
the Spaniards. This, at least, is the story of the Span- 
iards themselves; the other side has not yet been 
published. 

The Indians were of course repulsed, and fled, leaving 
several wounded, and their bows and arrows scattered 
on the ground. This was the first encounter in the 
New World between the Indians and Europeans, and 
here the first blood of the voyage was shed. 

From this encounter, and from the numerous arrows 
pic1?;ed up after it was over, Columbus named the body 
of water the Golfo de las Flee has, or the Bay of Arrows. 
He remained here several days, eventually treating with 
the cacique of the Samana tribe, from whom he received 
a golden crown; and hence he virtually took his depart- 



SAMANA AND THE BAY OF ARROWS. 



295 



lire, from this same Bay of Sainana, for Spain and the 
triumphs that awaited him at the Spanish court. 

Taking on board a few of the Indians as guides, he 
sailed in search of the Isles of Madanino, where the 
alleged Amazons were said to dwell. It may be re- 
marked in passing, that the Admiral held these Ama- 




SCENE OF THE FIRST ENCOUNTER WITH THE INDIANS. 
{Bay of Las Flechus.) 



zons in mind all through his second voyage, and thought 
he identified their island, Madanino, with Montserrate, 
in the Caribbee chain. But after sailing about rather 
aimlessly for a while, he gave up the search for the 
Amazons and the Caribs, and headed the vessels' home- 
ward for Spain. Thus, as we have seen, he took his 



296 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

last land view at the Bay of Samana, and from the 
headland at its mouth commenced the home voyage 
that eventually brought him to Lisbon and to Palos. 

I took, one day, a boat trip to the veritable Las 
Flechas, which is now, as in the days of Columbus, 
lonely and unvisited. Two or three huts occupy the 
lands adjacent, and a few negroes find an easy existence 
on its shore. The beach is of firm white sand, o'er- 
topped by cocoa palms, and a small islet breaks the 
force of the waves from the sea. 

The real harbor of Samana lies some five or six miles 
within the gulf, and is called, from the town there, Santa 
Barbara. It is a perfect acl-dc-sac, with deep water 
close up to the cays that lie opposite, and a most desir- 
able place of anchorage for even the largest vessels. It 
is protected by a line of reefs and connected islets that 
render it almost landlocked, with a narrow entrance 
open to the east. The hills on the land side are rather 
steep, but are cultivated to their tops, and offer fine 
sites for houses ; the valleys are fertile for tropical pro- 
ducts; the beaches, with their beautiful fringes of palms, 
are delightful for bathing ; the bay for boating, and the 
reefs for fishing. 

The entrance to the Bay of Samana, and the harbor 
of Santa Barbara in particular, has long been in the 
eyes of different nations as the best of all points for 
a West Indian coaling station. Its advantages are so 
numerous and patent that no doubt at all exists as to its 
desirability ; but for various reasons^ fortune has thus far 
passed it by. The name will recall to the reader the 
great "annexation scheme " of President Grant, and the 



SAMANA AND THE BAY OF ARROWS. 



297 



commission of experts and scientists sent down, during- 
his administration, to spy out and report upon the re- 
sources of the island. Samana at that time narrowly 
escaped the great good fortune of being brought under 
the folds of the American flag, the benefits of which 
would have been lasting and undoubted. As to the ad- 
vantages likely to accrue to us from such an acquisi- 
tion, there exists a greater doubt, for we have not yet 
arrived at the point of 
national growth that 
will warrant us in ac- 
quiring and holding 
extraneous posses- 
sions. The "holding 
of it" would be the 
difficult matter, for 
the Dominicans are 
born to strife; they 
are all ambitious and 
brave, and every man 
in the peninsula 
would feel that he, 
and he alone, should 
be elected to the 
presidency. Our lit- 
tle army, that now ^ typical washerwoman of samana. 
suffices to awe the 

Indians on the border, would be totally inadequate to 
keep in subjection these residents of Santo Domingo 
with the presidential " bees "in their bonnets. 

Below the town, in the direction of the head of the 




298 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

gulf, the vegetation on the hills is very varied, from 
the bright cocoa palms along the shore, with their gray 
stems and golden crowns, to the somber forest leaves, 
and all intermixed with black rocks and red spaces of 
earth, giving variety of color. Some ten miles down, 
there is a large plantation owned by a Boston company, 
devoted to the culture of bananas; but owing to lack of 
transportation facilities it has not as yet yielded much. 

Two hours' steaming takes us to Sanchez, at the bot- 
tom of the bay, with the same beautiful hills on the 
right as greeted us at the entrance. Sanchez itself is 
merely a gray streak of buildings against dark hills, all 
covered with woods. There are few bright beaches, 
but there are many palms and fine headlands, with 
attractive retreats snviggled in amongst the hills, but 
with a general aspect of depression. This is not owing 
to the lack of business — for it is the busiest town on 
the north coast — but to its situation. So shallow is the 
bay at this point, that the steamer anchors some two 
miles from shore, a landing being effected in a little tug 
belonging to the railroad company. 

This railroad is the only one in active operation in 
the island, and is under the management of Mr. Thomas 
McLelland, a Scotch gentleman of tried discretion and 
ability, who has resided here many years. The first 
concession for a road into the interior of Santo Domingo 
was granted to an American, about 1882. It was to 
connect the Bay of Samana with the city of Santiago, 
and open the rich and vast valley lying between the 
two mountain ranges that traverse this part of the island. 
This valley, or rather succession of valleys, has a varying 



SAMANA AND THE BAY OF ARROWS. 299 

width of thirty to fifty miles, running in a northwesterly 
direction from the Bay of Samana at Sanchez, to Man- 
zanillo Bay on the extreme north coast, near the Haitian 
boundary; the distance in a straight line is about one 
hundred and twenty miles. Scattered along the course 
are several populous towns : as Moca, Macoris, La Vega, 
and Santiago. The concession passed into the hands of 
a Scotchman, Mr. Alexander Baird, in 1883, who, alone 
and unaided, pushed the work to the town of La Vega, 
the present terminus. Formidable difficulties were en- 
countered at the* outset, the first being a nine-mile 
swamp, with a depth of filling necessary, at times, of 
fifteen to twenty feet. A port had to be created, and 
this was done at Las Canitas, since christened Sanchez; 
big buildings were erected, and tugs and lighters provided 
for the steamers that came here for cargo. An induce- 
ment held out by the Dominican Government toward 
construction, was the offer of every alternate section of 
land along the line; but upon investigation, after the 
work had been well begun, it was found that the 
Government did not own any land at all ; and not alone 
this, but all the settlers in the valley put in heavy 
claims for damages and right of way. All obstacles 
were finally overcome, and, in 1887, the line was opened 
to La Vega, sixty-two miles inland. The hitherto un- 
known Canitas soon became an important point; where 
before were only palm-tree and guava bush, a thriving 
town sprang up, with regular steamers calling there, 
and Sanchez is now a place of about one thousand 
inhabitants. 

The railroad, owing to the enormous expense of 



300 



IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 



location and the scarcity of skilled labor, has cost about 
two and a half millions of dollars ; but it is owned and 
operated by one man, and no one but himself has been 
a sufferer. It has never paid, as an investment, and 
it may be some years before it will ; but it is carefully, 
intelligently and economically managed, and if there 
is any chance whatever for its development and exten- 
sion, the present manager, Mr. McLelland, will avail 




I 



THE APPROACH TO SANCHEZ. 



himself of it. The company owns six locomotives,, 
two passenger and forty freight cars, with large and 
well-equipped machinery shops at the port, where also 
there are steam tugs and a fleet of lighters. Regarded 
as an investment merely, this enterprise may not appear 
a profitable one; but as an evidence of what pluck, 
energy, and British capital can do, it is an object lesson 
of the greatest value. To be sure, having no stock in 
the enterprise, we can view with equanimity these heroic 
efforts to plant the banner of civilization on the outer 
works; but I believe they will be successful, and that the 



SAMANA AND THE BAY OF ARROWS. 301 

manager's endeavors to turn the tide to his employer's 
advantage will be crowned with success. 

The change that has been wrought in the customs of 
the natives is wonderful. Here we find, at the port, a 
colony, the nucleus and animating principle of which is 
Scotch virtue and thrift. One lesson Mr. McLelland 
has taught the natives is punctuality. Until the rail- 
road was opened, they knew it not, neither did they 
regard the time-tables when they were posted. If the 
train was advertised to start at nine o'clock, they read 
it ten ; they rode leisurely up to the station, hitched 
their horses to the nearest tree, saluted all their acquaint- 
ances within ear-shot, smoked cigarettes innumerable, 
and lounged about aimlessly, not regarding the warn- 
ing whistle, believing the train would surely await the 
motions of distinguished caballeros like themselves; 
and the consequence was that they were left in the 
station, gazing hopelessly at the retreating train. 

A few reminders of this kind taught them that they 
could not dally with the new manager, and if they really 
wanted to go to another station on the. line they must 
be on hand, and in the car when the whistle sounded. 

From the delightful hospitality of Mr. McLelland at 
Sanchez, I tore myself away with difficulty, and under 
his guidance made the trip to La Vega and the Cibao. 
The manager's house at La Vega was placed at my dis- 
position, and thence I made preliminary trips to the 
places of interest, always, thanks to my friends, return- 
ing heavily laden with historic spoils for the Exposition. 



XV. 



THE HOLY HILL OF SANTO DOMINGO. 




M 



A RELIC FROM OLD VEGxV 



Y first visit to Sanchez 
was in June, 189 1 ; my 
second in May, 1892 ; the third 
was in July of the same year. 
As I had all the islands of the 
West Indies to include in my 
province as Commissioner, and 
as inter-insular communica- 
tion is desultory and unrelia- 
ble, I could not always arrive 
at the most desirable points at 
the time desired. 
It so happened that every visit to Santo Domingo was 
during or at the commencement of the rainy season. 
This was peculiarly unfortunate, since in this island of 
Santo Domingo more than in any other, I had before 
me the labor of exploration in a comparatively unknown 
field, where the roads were poor or non-existent, and 
the forests difficult to penetrate. At the time of my 
first arrival, a great flood had carried away the railroad 
bridges between Sanchez and Vega, and by the advice 

302 



THE HOLY HILL OF SANTO DOMINGO. 305 

of the manager, I continued on to Santo Domingo City, 
returning after the rains had abated a little. 

La Vega, the terminus of rail communication, is a 
straggling town of mean houses set down in the midst 
of scenery perfectly beautiful. A great deal of business 
is transacted here, as it is the market town and railroad 
center for a vast region; but in the rainy season the 
roads are horrible, being merely broad mud-holes filled 
with filth, in which pigs are rolling and dirty children 
disporting themselves. The population is mainly col- 
ored, and the trade is controlled by a few shopkeepers. 

Designed by a beneficent Deity for the abode of man, 
given a delicious climate, most delightful scenery and 
fertile soil — how man has abused these glorious gifts of 
the Almighty ! Around the valley, which is level, and 
in the bend of the river Camu, is a range of pine-covered 
hills, the vegetation of two zones thus meeting and 
blending between the pine and the palm. 

From the President of Santo Domingo and his minis- 
ters, I bore letters of introduction to the Governor of 
the province and to the Government Delegate, recom- 
mending me to their good offices and requesting their 
aid in my explorations. I gained a side glimpse of the 
peculiarities of Dominican politics in these letters, for 
I soon perceived that though the Governor was nomi- 
nally the head of the civil body, yet the Government 
Delegate was really the man in power. In other 
words, the Governor had been appointed to please the 
people, and as a figurehead ; but the real representative 
of the Government was the Delegate, who had been 
placed in position to watch the Governor. 



306 



IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 



My letters were received with the respect to which 
they were entitled, and with many assurances of an 
overpowering desire on the part of the recipients to 
serve me to the full extent of their powers. It was 
arranged that a body of gentlemen should meet next 
day at Mr. McLelland's house, and escort me to the hill 




THE MANAGER'S HOUSE AT SANCHEZ, 



of Santo Cerro, where the real work of investigation 
was to begin. They were to meet at seven, sharp ; but 
I gave myself the benefit of my previous acquaintance 
with Dominican character to defer my preparations till 
nine, and about ten the caballeros came straggling 
along. There were ten of them, a gallant cavalcade, 
mounted on horses that, if not spirited, were made to 



THE HOLY HILL OF SANTO DOMINGO. 307 

appear so by application of the cruel bit and spur. We 
rode through the hall with great eclat, the horses of 
the Governor and the Delegate in friendly rivalry for 
the leadership, and cutting mucJias figtwas (curveting 
about) to the openly- expressed admiration of the fair 
ones in the doorways, as we swept along. The roads 
were deep and muddy, but that didn't matter; the 
horses must prance just the same, and we dashed on, re- 
gardless of the splashing mud, and forded the broad 
river at a run. 

Some four miles more of mud-holes lay before us, but 
we kept well together all the way, and at last reached 
the base of the Santo Cerro, or Holy Hill. It is a stiff 
climb up the hill, even on foot, but our prancing steeds 
made nothing of it, and the black charger of the Gov- 
ernor dashed showily up, snorting, and pawing the slip- 
pery clay, and awaited us panting at the top. Some of 
our party were indignant, either because of the strain 
put upon a beautiful piece of horse flesh, or else because 
His Excellency had got ahead of them. However, we 
formed at the church, and then all dashed down the 
narrow street like a party of cowboys, only without 
their whoopings, making a brave appearance, I fancy, 
as we suddenly halted in front of the priest's house, 
throwing our horses upon their haunches directly in 
front of the padre and his pretty sister — for whose 
benefit, I doubt not, all this display was intended. 

We flocked into the house, a dozen of us, at least — for 
such is the good old hospitable way they have in the island 
— and sat expectant while the ladies of the household 
prepared coffee for us. After an hour or two of friendly 



308 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

chat, during- which the objects of my mission were duly 
set out, and hearty co-operation was promised, we wan- 
dered over to the church, and then into a tienda^ where 
the old woman in charge promised to prepare a. san-coche 
for us when my companions returned. For they were 
to return in a week or so and escort me back to Vega,j 
with all the honors. 

After half an hour of affecting leave-takings, niA 
friends departed, and I was left in the hands of the 
priest, who was a young man of twenty-six, living in 
a little house with numerous relations, including his 
mother and an exceedingly pretty sister. They were 
kind, sympathetic, and hospitable, taking me, a perfect 
stranger, into their already crowded household, and 
making it evident that I was welcome. There was no 
room at the parsonage for me to sleep, but I was given 
the use of a hut adjoining, in which my things were 
placed and my hammock swung. It had a mud floor, 
to be sure, and a roof of yagna^ or palm bark, and the 
hens, the cats, the dogs, and the pigs, walked in and out 
at will ; but it was the best to be had, and if it had been 
a palace at their disposal, instead of a hut, I am sure it 
would have been mine. 

Santo Cerro, or the Holy Hill of Santo Domingo, is 
one of the most remarkable of the natural attractions of 
the island. It rises some six hundred feet above the 
magnificent and extensive valley called the Vega Real, 
the Royal Plain, which extends almost across the island. 
It was in 1494 that, breaking through the mountain- 
walls of the Yaqui River, coming up from the coast of 
Isabella, Columbus gave this name to the glorious plain 



THE HOLY HILL OF SANTO DOMINGO. 311 

before him, lying- there like a vale of Paradise, shining- 
with rivers, dotted with palms, above which floated the 
smoke from populous Indian villages, and over which 
spread a sky of purest ether. At the present day, the 
name is applied more particularly to the elcA^ated plateau 
between the towns of Santiago and La Vega, and as 
viewed from this holy hill of Santo Cerro. 

At the time of discovery, the island of Haiti — Ba- 
heqiie or Qiiisqiieya as it was variously called by the 
natives, and Espafwla, as Columbus termed it — was 
divided under the dominion of five caciques or chiefs. 
They held their office by hereditary right, and were ab- 
solute within their own territory. The first cacique to 
be encountered by the Spaniards was Guacanagari, who 
held sway in the northeast, over what is now Haiti 
proper, and on whose shore the flag-ship of Columbus 
was wrecked. His territory extended east to the Yaqui 
River, where began the possessions of Guarionex, which 
embraced all the valley of the Yaqui, and all the Royal 
Vega, probably as far as the Gulf of Samana. The 
third caciquedom was in the interior mountains, and 
comprised the Cibao (or stony) region, where the rich 
gold finds were. It was ruled by Caonabo, a chieftain 
of Carib descent, the fiercest and bravest of these 
Indians. This province was known as Maguana, and 
the seat of Caonabo, on the southern slope of the Cibao 
range of mountains, is to-day called San Juan de la 
Maguana. The fourth province was Higuey, including 
all the eastern portion of the island south of the river 
Yuna and Samana Bay, and was ruled over by Cacique 
Cotubanama. The fifth province, Xaragua, took in the 



312 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

southwestern and western part of the island, was very 
populous, and under the sway of Behechio, whose sister, 
Anacaona, was the wife of Caonabo, and celebrated for 
her beauty. 

The subjection of the Indians began with that of 
Guacanagari, who was soon a fugitive ; then Caonabo was 
captured, in 1494, and the Spaniards moved upon the rich 
cacique, Guarionex, in 1495. It was in March, 1495, that 
Columbus set out from Isabella to punish the Indians 
of the Vega for alleged outrages provoked by lawless , 
Spaniards. 

The army marched up the valley of the Yaqui to 
a point near the present city of Santiago, and there 
encountered the savages assembled, it is said, to the 
number of one hundred thousand. But, whatever the 
number, they stood no chance with the Spaniards; with 
their naked bodies and primitive weapons, they were 
almost defenseless against mail-clad soldiers armed with 
swords and pikes, cross-bows and arquebuses, and hav- 
ing the aid of horses that seemed to the Indians devour- 
ing beasts, and of fierce bloodhounds that tore them in 
pieces with growls of rage. They soon fled, of course, 
and the monsters that came here in the garb of civ- 
ilization pursued them till they were weary with the 
slaughter. The province of Guarionex came under 
the hoof, and Columbus imposed exacting tribute that 
soon crushed out of these peaceful people the little life 
remaining. Gold was what he wanted, and gold he got, 
until the streams and superficial deposits were exhausted, 
and the Indians borne down into their graves. 

The cacique offered to sow the entire Vega with corn. 



THE HOLY HILL OF SANTO DOMINGO. 



313 



and furnish supplies enough for the army for years ; but 
Columbus would not hear to this proposition, and soon 
was experiencing the rewards of his short-sighted pol- 
icy; for the Indians fled to the mountains, and famine 
spread over the land. 

Then Columbus sent home to Spain as slaves, five 
hundred Indians, thus not only initiating the system of 




SANTO CEKEO CHURCH AND THE AGED TREE. 

tribute that hastened their extinction, but laying the 
foundation for slavery in America. 

After the battle, the Spaniards prowled through the 
Vega, plundering the natives, and shortly came to the 
hill now known as Santo Cerro. From its summit 
Columbus saw the magnificence of the country he had 



314 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

conquered, and by some historians it is told that the 
great battle was watched by him from this very spot. 

He was here, at all events; and an aged tree is still 
pointed out near the church, beneath which he stood 
and looked out over the plain, and which is called the 
'"'■ Nispero de Colon." The padre gave me fragments of 
it to take home ; though I attach no importance to such 
relics as do not carry their value on the face. 

Beneath, or near, this tree, Columbus erected a cross; 
and it is from a miracle said to have been performed 
anent this very cross, that the hill received its name of 
Santo Cerro — the Holy Hill. It seems that after the 
Spaniards had departed, the Indians espied this cross, 
and approached to revile it. As they did so, they saw 
a woman descend from the clouds and alight upon the 
cross. It was the Holy Virgin, but the savages did 
not know her, and proceeded to stone her away. She 
did not move ; then they let fly their arrows at her, but 
the sharp barbs passed through her, and did not seem to 
affect her determination to remain and protect the cross. 
Seeing this the Indians recognized her saintliness, and 
fell down, and were converted on the spot. 

Ever since, the hill has been a sacred spot; and the 
handsome chapel now erected there is the result of con- 
tributions from those who believe the tradition, and 
have faith in the efficacy of the saintly patron's charms. 
The people come from many miles around to pay their 
devotions here and perform their vows, and the little 
hamlet is entirely supported by the contributions of the 
faithful. It is a scant living they get, these dwellers on 
the Holy Hill, but there is a silversmith here who 



THE HOLY HILL OF SANTO DOMINGO. 315 

makes charms, a baker or two, and many hangers-on in 
general, who live in the yag-na-coYeved huts, on the 
brink of the hill and of poverty. 

The image of the Virgin contained within the chapel 
is a very beautiful one, and is said to date from the time 
of Columbus. The padre, one day, raised the curtain 




^i 







SiKi" 



.' ..S^".L..J 



THE SHRINE OF THE VIRGIN WORSHIPED IN THE TIME OF COLUMBUS. 

that hid her from vulgar gaze except on certain feast- 
days, and granted me the privilege of photographing 
her in all her beauty of gold and tinsel, paint, silks and 
artificial flowers. 

Although this island and this shrine are in the pos- 
session of colored and black people, yet they have gen- 
erally white saints and virgins in their churches, and 



316 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 



I 



mostly white priests at the altars. The padre (to be 
exact, perhaps I should say the euro) is descended 
from white ancestors from Spain, and is a typical Span- 
iard. He and his family were goodness and hospitality 
personified — seeking ways to promote the success of 
my enterprise, and to enhance the pleasure of my stay. 
I doubt if the ecclesiastical revenues were vast, judg- 
ing from the poverty-stricken people that congregated 
here ; but there seemed no limit to his generosity and 
kindness. 

Looking about for articles of interest for the Exposi- 
tion, I espied in the church an old bell, dated 1777, 
cracked and useless, but of quaint pattern, and this I 
begged of the cura^ who at once gave it to me. He 
gave it freely ; but I noticed that in the belfry there 
was a small bell missing, and I resolved to supply its 
place. So, in the report to vsiy chief, I recommended 
that another, and a good bell, be sent in exchange for 
this the ciira had given us. And, a year later, coming 
back to Santo Cerro, I had the pleasure of assisting at 
the hanging of it. My dear padre had been transferred 
to another station, but another good man was in his 
place, and it was with heartfelt thanks to the execu- 
tives of the Exposition, who had sent him this beauti- 
ful bell, that he received me. Miguel, the sacristan, 
took me up to the tower, and I had the satisfaction of 
ringing it. 

Another, and yet more interesting relic of earliest 
times, I begged of the ciira as a loan: this was an 
iron cross that had been dug up on the church site of 
the oldest city in this region, and had hung in the 



THE HOLY HILL OF SANTO DOMINGO. 



317 



chapels here from time immemorial. It is of quaint 
and intricate pattern, and very old, probably coming to 
this country from Spain with the conquistador es. Still 
another relic was found in the shape of an old cannon, 
a small howitzer, or lombard, from the first fort erected 
by Columbus in this region. It had been burst in firing 
at some religious fete, but was still good for a noise, 
although the one that touched it off took his life in his 
hand. I promised a gun in exchange for this, also, and 
an amusing mistake at the War Department caused the 




A VIEW OF SANTO CEKRO. 



sending to Santo Domingo of a fine bronze field-piece,, 
though of an obsolete pattern, instead of the small 
yacht gun I had intended. When I reached Sanchez 
a year later, it lay in the warehouse of the railroad 
company, being so large and fine, and so altogether 
desirable for revolutionary purposes, that the manager 
hesitated to send it into the interior. In fact, rumor 
had it that several revolutionary leaders were anxiously 



318 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

awaiting its arrival, and the President was beginning to 
inquire about it. So it did not go in; but I saw the 
President afterward, and he promised me an ancient 
gun for it, from the arsenal at the capital. 

Near the Cerro is an arroyo through which runs the 
stream Chancleta, the water of which has the peculiar 



-.U-'. 

-*!' 








ALONG THE KIVKK YUNA. 



property of incrusting objects placed in it with a crys- 
talline deposit. Bottles and other objects are sold 
at the Cerro covered with this deposit, which is fer- 
ruginous in color and vitreous in appearance. Within 
the chapel a sacred well is shown, from which at times 
gushes out a spring of water possessing wonderful effi- 
cacy when blessed by the priest; and half-way down 
the hill is another, supposed to have connection with 



THE HOLY HILL OF SANTO DOMINGO. 319 

this. The hill itself is half-covered with tropical forest- 
growth, and the path ascending is divided into stations 
for the devotees, indicated by crosses, while a group of 
wooden crosses adorns the crown of the hill. 

As to the view from the church, I confess myself 
unable to do it justice in words, merely. It surpasses 
the view of the Yumuri Valley from Guadeloupe, in 
Cuba, and in some respects the outlook over Granada 
from the Alhambra Palace — both of which I have en- 
joyed,but each has a different charm. From a height of 
six hundred feet and more, one looks directly down upon 
tropical gardens occupied by palm-covered huts and 
flaming with the vivid crimson of the flamboyant trees, 
and beyond, over forests of palms, groves of cacao, cof- 
fee, plantains and bananas : a vast plain, bounded only 
by the hills of the Monte-Cristi range; populous, yet 
silent; fertile, yet half-cultivated; beautiful, yet with its 
beauties unenjoyed. Looking upon these visible charms 
which so moved the Admiral that he called it the 
Royal Vega, and recalling the immortal events of his^ 
tory that have transpired here, the heart swells with 
emotions difficult to express. With the witchery of the 
moon upon it all, it was inexpressibly beautiful, and I 
would that all who love the divine in nature could at 
least look once upon it. 

The rainy season had caught me here; my plans were 
frustrated, and the work I had contemplated retarded. 
But I made excursions to the ruins of the earthquake- 
ruined city in the plain, in the intervals of the rains, 
and a journey to Santiago, returning with pleasure to 
my quarters with my good friend the padre. 



320 



IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 



When the day came at last to depart, half the vil- 
lagers descended to the plain to see me on my way. 
The padre was the last to leave me, and he sent along- 
Miguel, in charge of a sturdy donkey groaning beneath 
the "plunder" I had collected for the Exposition — the 
bell, the lombard, and the cross, as well as numerous 
" curios " yet unmentioned. 







WINDOW IN ROSARIO CHAPEL, SANTO DOMINGO. 

{The oldest chapel in America.) 



-V 

t 
I 



XVI. 

THE EARTHQUAKE-BURIED TOWNS. 

MY chief reason for establishing- myself at Santo 
Cerro, was to be within working distance of the 
ancient Vega Vieja, Old Vega, which was one of the 
towns destroyed by the great earthquake of 1564. It 
has long been a tradition that beneath the walls a great 
deal of treasure lies buried. 

But what was of even more importance to me was 
that many relics of the times of the conquistador es were 
yet to be found by search. After the subjugation of 
the Indians, Columbus erected a line of forts across the 
upland plain, the first being near the pass through the 
mountains at the entrance to the Yaqui Valley; the sec- 
ond farther up; the third at or near the present city 
of Santiago, and the last and most important near the 
hill now known as Santo Cerro. This was called Con- 
cepcion de la Vega, and being in a most fertile district, 
and also quite near the residence of Guarionex, the 
cacique of the Vega, it soon became the nucleus for 
a thriving settlement. A large town eventually sur- 
rounded it, and the ruins to-day indicate its extent, 
being scattered over a great area. 

321 



322 



IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 



I 



The most conspicuous ruins are those of the church, 
the fortress, and a large convent, the latter supposed to 
have been built by the bequest of Columbus. Owing 
to the richness of the country adjacent, in gold and 
agricultural resources, the town had the reputation of 




KUINS UF THE CHURCH BUILT liY BEQUEST OF CULUMBUS. 



being wealthy, at the time of its destruction, which 
occurred the twentieth of April, 1564, during the cele- 
bration of the morning mass. This was some seventy 
years after the founding of the fort, and when the town 
had become the chief settlement of this region. Miguel, 
the sacristan, who had assumed charge of me at Santo 
Cerro, and whose hammock hung in the only other 



THE EARTHQUAKE-BURIED TOWNS. 323 

room the hut contained, called me at six in the morning, 
and at seven we were descending the steep hill toward 
Old Vega. The path was filled with people coming to 
the Saturday mass, which is the mass of the Virgin, and 
is attended from far and near. 

About two miles from the hill, we found four peons 
awaiting us, and at eight o'clock we were at work clean- 
ing out the angle of the fort. This old fort is the veri- 
table "Fort Concepcion" erectedby order of Columbus, 
in 1495. There are yet remains enough to show its origi- 
nal plan, though it is entirely in ruins except the north- 
east angle, where its circular bastion is nearly perfect. 
Here, the walls are about ten feet high, six feet thick, 
with a space of sixteen- feet inside. As near as one 
may judge from the remains, the fort was about two 
hundred feet square, with the circular bastions at the 
four corners, built mainly of brick, and in the thorough 
manner of the old Spanish architects. 

For years and years, the residents of the Vega have 
been digging out the bricks, until nearly the whole 
structure has been taken away, except the northeast 
angle. The site is nearly overgrown with large trees, 
and the surroundings are attractive — the fields adjacent 
slope to the hills, and through the trees is a fine view of 
the Cerro. The site does not appear to have been com- 
manding, some of the ruins of houses being higher up, 
but the surface features may have changed in the lapse 
of four hundred years. 

After having given the peons another spot to exca- 
vate, I retired to the thatched tobacco shed on the 
crown of a low hill, and there superintended operations. 



324 



IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 



I 



It is a most beautiful spot, in the midst of a clean-kept 
garden. Tall palms rise above the shed, a papaw-tree 
stands in front, sug-ar-cane, bananas, plantains, maize, 
tobacco, yucca, cassava, melons, and peppers, grow lux- 
uriantly all around, while cahuiles, plums, cocoa palms, 
and calabashes, are sprinkled all about the garden. 




KUINS OF FORT CONCEPCION. 



Such a garden, with almost all these fruits and vege- 
tables, might have had Guarionex, the cacique of the 
Vega, before the Spaniards came; and this spot was 
very near, if not on the site of his village. 

The hills of the Cerro range rise near, and across 
the valley above Moca, others rise blue against the sky. 
Cool breezes sweep through, as I swing there in my 



THE EARTHQUAKE-BURIED TOWNS. 325 

hammock, and the simple people crowd around with 
bits of old iron and brass, from the ruins, to sell, and 
occasionally something better — as for instance, an ori- 
ginal "hawk's bell," or cainpafitta, which the first Span- 
iards brought here for traffic with the Indians, and 
which the natives treasured above all other things, bar- 
tering for these bells their most valued possessions, and 
giving in exchange great lumps of gold. With what I 
bought and what I dug out of the ruins, I brought away 
some hundreds of objects for the Exposition; most of 
them were small, but many of them were valuable for 
the confirmatory evidence they give on the early history 
of this region. The most valuable of all my "finds," 
perhaps, is a small bell, which, we have every reason to 
believe, was the first that ever was brought to America 
for religious purposes. 

The only ruins of any importance whatever, are those 
of the fort and the old church. The latter are near the 
highway, and consist of great crumbling blocks of ma- 
sonry, hung with vines and overgrown with the para- 
sitic " fig-tree." This church was the first to be built 
after that of Isabella, and when, toward the last of the 
fifteenth century, that settlement was abandoned, all the 
ecclesiastical furniture of the first church was brought 
to the more recent settlement of the Vega — then a 
promising town around the fort called Concepcion. It 
is believed that amongst other things this bell was 
taken here and hung in the belfry of the church, and 
there seems little doubt that this was the first brought 
to America by Columbus as the gift of Isabella, placed in 
the chapel there, and later taken to the Vega. It hung 



326 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 



in the tower till the great earthquake of 1564, when the 
church was tumbled to the ground. The tower re- 
mained almost intact, though cracked and shattered, 
but the bell was lost to sight. The dwellers of the city 
hastened to the site of the present Vega, and there set- 
tled, and the site of Concepcion was neglected and 
well-nigh forgotten. 

Some years ago, a man observed a strange object in 
the branches of a "fig-tree " that had grown around 
the tower and penetrated the belfry. These "figs" 
are parasitic, and wrap themselves around any object 
within their reach, whether it be tree, wall or post. 
I have seen some with large trees of another species 
growing from their hearts, apparently, so thoroughly 
had they enmeshed them. They form a perfect net- 
work around the object enclosed, through which it can 
be seen ; and their strength is so great that they some- 
times lift stones and plants from the ground. This 
"fig" around the tower had entered the belfry, and 
emerged with the long-hidden bell in its ligneous arms, 
bringing it to the light of day, after the lapse of at least 
three centuries. Perceiving this, the simple people 
looked upon this re-appearance as nothing short of 
miraculous, and the "bell of the fig-tree" became fa- 
mous throughout the island. It finally came into the 
possession of Father Bellini, a priest now deceased, 
whose good works are manifest in many things he did 
for the people of Santo Domingo. Father Bellini took it 
to the capital, where it hung for several years in the 
school he founded there, and where I first saw it. 
Through the good offices of Senor Galvan, at that time 



I 



THE EARTHQUAKE-BURIED TOWNS. 



327 



in Washington as plenipotentiary from the government 
of Santo Domingo to negotiate a treaty with the United 
States, this bell was obtained for the Exposition. At 
the request of the Chief of the Latin-American Depart- 
ment of the Exposition, Mr. W. E. Curtis, a letter was 
sent to the heirs of Father Bellini, requesting them to 
deliver to me, as 
Commissioner of the 
Exposition, this pre- 
cious relic. After the 
customary felicita- 
tions, the letter goes 
on to say : " Mr. 
Curtis, interested in 
the welfare of our 
Republic, desires that 
this bell occupy the 
distinguished place 
in the Exposition 
which properly be- 
longs to it from its .- 
historic importance, 
and has applied to 
me to assist in pro- 
curing as a loan the 

bell in question. I participate in his desire, and transmit 
it to you, begging you to associate your name and that of 
our Reverend Father Bellini (whom God guard) with this 
honorable exhibit of what our country once signified in 
the colonization of the American world — as also in the 
estimation of the catholic sovereign (Ferdinand) whose 




A PKEOIOUS KELIC. 



328 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

monogram is engraved upon the bell itself. Mr. Ober, 
Special Commissioner of the Exposition to the Antilles, 
will place this letter in your hands, and I recommend 
him warmly to your attentions, doubting not that you 
will confide to his care the bell referred to, for which he 
will give a receipt, with a promise to return it at the 
close of the Exposition; and this you can do with all 
confidence, in view of the official and personal character 
of the gentleman named." 

Armed with this letter, when at the capital I called 
upon General Bellini, nephew of the deceased priest, in 
whose charge the bell then remained, and, after a long 
interview, during which it seemed extremely doubtful if 
the bell could be secured, I was taken out to see it. I 
anxiously awaited the movements of the General, and 
was not happy until he finally placed it in the carriage 
we had in waiting, and drove with me to the American 
Consulate, where I put it in the safe. Next morning, 
bright and early, I took it on board the Clyde steamer, 
got a receipt from the purser, who placed it in the 
specie tank, and then had the satisfaction of seeing the 
steamer sail away. I say satisfaction, because I knew 
that the relic was not safe until well beyond the reach 
of any one who might wish to prevent its deportation to 
the States. It was held as such a sacred relic that the 
whole public felt they had an interest in it, and were it 
known that it was to be taken away, there would be 
trouble. 

Indeed, I had barely finished my breakfast, before a 
messenger from the General desired me to return the 
bell at once- as his friends strenuously objected to its 



THE EARTHQUAKE-BURIED TOWNS. 



329 



exportation. Happily, I could say that it was then im- 
possible, since the bell was already on board the depart- 
ing steamer, and beyond my reach. The General took 
the defeat good-naturedly, but was not satisfied until I 
had given, not only my personal receipt, but had insured 
the bell itself for a thousand dollars. This was done; 




ONE OF THE MOST INTERESTING SPOTS OF JACAGUA. 



and that is the manner in which I obtained one of 
the most precious of American relics for our great 
Exposition. 

The house I was excavating at Old Vega was said to 
be about the only one that had not been opened since 
the earthquake, and I hoped to find something worthy 
of the undertaking; but an all-day search revealed very 



830 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

little. I suppose that there was little, if any, wealth] 
at the time of its destruction, though the gold from the] 
mountain mines was brought here to be refined before] 
being sent to Spain. 

The bright day came to an end at last, my men gave 
up the search, and we departed for the Cerro. It was^ 
my intention to spend several days in excavating ; but 
that night the rains began, and as the downpour con- 
tinued all the week following, I was unable to return. 

A year passed before I could again visit Old Vega, 
and the rains were falling as before. Since the first 
attempt, however, excavations had been made, with 
little result, and my only object was to obtain a photo- 
graph of the ruined church, which I had not secured at 
my first visit. 

The same earthquake that destroyed Old Vega laid 
waste another settlement, lying near the present city of 
Santiago. I intended to excavate on both sites, and, 
after waiting a few days in vain for the rain to hold up, 
I started for the other locality. 

Miguel engaged a peon and two horses, and after 
breakfast one morning we started. It rained from 
the very start, and I had six long hours of misery on 
the road. The first hour was along and down the ridge 
of the Cerro, amidst lovely scenery, with a broad view 
of the Vega, and after descending the hill we crossed 
the three channels of the Rio Verde, a broad and beau- 
tiful stream overhung with great trees. 

Beyond the Verde we encountered a stretch of road 
where the horses merely plumped from one deep hole 
into another. These holes extended as far as the eye 



THE EARTHQUAKE-BURIED TOWNS. 331 

could reach, and made the road one vast sea of mud 
crossed by regular ridges, like deep furrows across a 
ploughed field of richest soil. Through these mud 
holes women and children were struggling, from, one 
slippery hummock to another, though just where mud 
left off and biped began, it would puzzle an expert to 
decide, so plastered and bespattered were all with the 
rich red earth. 

This road was opened nearly four hundred years ago, 
and not a dollar has been expended in improvements 
since the first mail-clad conquistador rode through the 
forests between La Vega and Santiago, seeking a trail 
to connect the recently-erected fortresses. During all 
this time mules and horses, men and cattle, have set 
their feet in the self -same holes, until now they can 
hardly reach the solid earth beneath. 

Rank and rich is the whole country between Vega 
and Santiago, yet it is not made to yield a thousandth 
part of its richness to the hand of man. It has the 
most fertile soil and the most beautiful forms of vege- 
table life, so enticingly luxuriant, so rankly regal, that 
it made my heart ache to think upon the waste of it all. 
Not one appreciative glance is ever cast upon this 
wealth of vegetation, not one effort is made at adorn- 
ment, or any attempt to entice forth the dormant life 
that only needs encouragement to leap into grateful 
recognition. 

There is not a house or hut, in all the twenty miles 
between Vega and Santiago, worth forty dollars ; and 
around the doorways of these miserable hovels are 
crouched most miserable natives, the color of the mud 



332 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

that so plentifully bedaubs them. In the midst of 
plenty they are poor, and always on the verge of star- 
vation. I was overtaken on the road by a boy who 
really looked half-starved, and who whiningly begged 
for a small coin. Not having one about me, I told him 
to await my return ; and three days later, coming back, 
he was there in wait for me, looking hungrier than ever. 

Reaching Santiago late in the afternoon, I paddled 
through its dismal streets in search of a hotel, drenched, 
and muddy to the chin, and after having been rained 
upon during the entire trip of over six hours. The 
regular hostelry was full, and I found shelter in an 
unfinished building on the plaza. 

Santiago de los Caballeros,the chief city of the Cibao, 
or interior of Santo Domingo, was founded in 1504, by 
thirty caballej'os, who obtained from the king of Spain 
permission to use the term above cited as the distin- 
guishing appellation. Although it has been several 
times destroyed — first by the buccaneers, then by the 
Haitiens, and lastly by revolutionists — and has suffered 
from earthquakes, yet it is to-day a bright and flourish- 
ing city, the head of the province, which contains some 
forty thousand inhabitants. It has three churches, a 
fine plaza, a large cemetery, and is situated directly 
above the river Yaqui, on a commanding bluff. 

As the center of trade for all the Cibao, Santiago con- 
trols all this vast interior traffic, the only outlet to the 
coast being by the way of La Vega and Puerto Plata. 
Two railroads are trending hither from the coast: one 
starting at Puerto Plata, and the other the road from 
Samana Bay, with its present terminus at La Vega, 



THE EARTHQUAKE-BURIED TOWNS. 



333 



about twenty miles away. There is not traffic enough, 
either present or prospective, for more than one road,, 
though it is quite certain that at least one is necessary,, 
and will eventually reach this important place. 

My arrival had been heralded, and the evening paper, 
El Dia^ announced that the Commissioner for the 




THE CEMETERY AT SANTIAGO. 



Exposition had arrived, and that a party of gentlemen, 
the chief citizens of the place, would meet him that 
evening, at the house of Sehor Jesus Mercado. 

We met and discussed the prospects for an exhibit 
from the Cibao, and, after the discussion, we were enter- 
tained delightfully by the noble host. That was in July 



334 TN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

of 1 89 1. Upon my return the next summer, I was 
grieved to learn that Senor Mercado had been sus- 
pected of conspiring against the Government, and was 
then languishing in the castle at the capital. Several 
other distinguished citizens were also keeping him com- 
pany, and a feeling of great uneasiness prevailed, for 
it was not known who would be the next victim of the 
Dictator's suspicions. But I received the assurances 
of these gentlemen that I possessed their sympathies, 
and that all possible would be done to give the region 
a representation. 

The one most interested in the work, and the one who 
gave substantial proofs of his interest, was Senor Hun- 
gria, the editor of the largest paper. El Eco del Pueblo. 
He not only presented me with articles of historic in- 
terest for the Exposition, but accompanied me, on my 
second visit, to the site of the second fortress erected in 
the gold region. 

I was also introduced to a strange character, a gentle- 
man of leisure, Senor Don Antonio Alix, known through- 
out the Cibao as the " Poet of the Sierras." He had a 
family of charming daughters, a wife devoted to him, 
and a muse who was always ready for a romp or a frolic 
in the fields of poesy; so what more could the heart of 
man desire? 

Mounting his horse, the poet insisted on going with me 
to visit the ruins of old Jacagua, a league or two distant 
from the city. This town was destroyed by an earth- 
quake in the year 1564. It was a lovely morning on 
which we made the trip, and we found a warm welcome 
at the hands of the proprietor of Jacagua, Seiior Don 



THE EARTHQUAKE-BURIED TOWNS. 



335 



Ricardo Ovies, who spoke English fluently, and who 
placed the whole estate at my disposition. He had 
accumulated several articles of value, and these he gave 
me for the Exposition, while he promised to have the 
ruins excavated for our benefit. This promise I assisted 
him to fulfill, and on my return, a year later, left a sum 




SITE OF THE OLD CHURCH AT JACAGUA. 



of money for the purpose, by means of which many 
valuable relics were brought to light, and were sent to 
the head of the Department at Washington. 

Jacagua was a flourishing settlement up to the time 
of the earthquake, when the people removed to the site 
of the present Santiago. It was founded soon after the 



336 



IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 



great battle that decided the fate of the Indians of the^ 
Vega, and a fort was built here. There was a church, 
the ruins of which are visible, and the fine spring-j 
which is still flowing was the reason, probably, for the* 
founding of the settlement here. I obtained a great 

number of relics of those 
ancient times, and through 
the good offices of Senor 
O vies, the collections from 
Santo Domingo were 
largely augmQnted. Our 
host gave us a delightful 
dinner, including delicious 
wine of native fruits, and 
preserves of his good wife's 
making; he has since re- 
peatedly proven the sin- 
cerity of his 
proffers by 
giving us the 
results of the 
excavations. 

The poet, 
found and 




USED BY THE EARLY SPANIARDS. 

(I. Domhiican Cxitlass. 2. Old Toledo icith Dominican 
hilt. 3. " Toledo " as brought over by a conquistador.) 



gave me an 

ancient spur, called an acicate^ and also an old Indian 
jug, with a whistle in its nose, while I purchased sev- 
eral of the old Toledo blades for which the section is 
famous. I do not mean, of course, that they are manu- 
factured here, but that veritable Toledos are still in 
the possession of some of the old families, having de- 



THE EARTHQUAKE-BURIED TOWNS. 



337 



scended to them from the conquistadores. As I have 
mentioned, the settlement was made by gentlemen of 
birth and breeding, the city receiving permission from the 
king of Spain to be known as the City of the Gentlemen ; 
and to-day there are more people of white extraction 
here than in any other town in the island ; the female 
types of pure and graded blood being quite pretty. 

I have in my possession 
one of these old Toledos, 
which has all the flexibility 
for which the blades were 
noted in the time of the 
Moors, and which has been 
reset into a very quaint and 
effective hilt. Some of those 
I obtained went to Chicago, 
and doubtless many of my 
readers will have seen those 

veritable blades with which the half-barbaric Spaniards 
pricked and prodded the inoffensive Indians. 

There is no more interesting spot in Santiago than 
the cemetery, where the system of rental of graves still 
prevails, the remains being turned out after the expira- 
tion of time of lease. I saw here a most picturesque 
tomb that had been opened for that purpose, and the 
skull and coffin exposed. 

Below the city runs the swift and turbulent Yaqui, 
which is crossed by a ferry owned and operated by an 
American. The citadel overlooks the cit}" and river, 
and a glorious view of the country around is spread out 
before the observer. 




THE WHISTLING JUG. 



XVII. 



IN SANTO DOMINGO CITY. 



RETURNING from the interior of Santo Domingo, 
I resumed my voyage around the island, taking a 
Clyde steamer, and making the run from Samana to the 
capital in twenty- four hours. 

Santo Domingo City lies west of south from the head 
of Samana Bay. It can be reached from that point 
either by an overland journey on horseback of two or 
three days, depending upon the state of the trails, or by 
the steamer sailing around the entire eastern end of the 
island. 

Santo Domingo is the oldest city of European founda- 
tion in America. It possesses, doubtless, more attrac- 
tions than any other on the continent, having within its 
walls so many relics of those early years of our history. 

The town was founded in 1496, by Bartholomew 
Columbus, the intrepid brother of the Admiral ; roman- 
tic interest and historic associations thickly cluster 
around it, and it is intimately identified with the career 
of Columbus himself. 

Miguel Diaz, a Spanish soldier, fleeing from the pun- 
ishment he had incurred by wounding a companion, 

338 



IN SANTO DOMINGO CITY. 



339 



wandered through the woods and over the mountains 
from Isabella to the south coast, where he formed an 
attachment for an Indian caciquess, who governed the 
tribe then resident along the banks of the river Ozama. 
The native queen retained him with her for a time, but 
seeing that he longed for the companionship of his fel- 
low Spaniards, and learning that he was afraid to return 
to them without something with which to propitiate his 
commander, and that nothing would be so acceptable as 
gold, she informed him that within her own territory 




A SANTO DOMINGO SEAPOKl' TOWN. 



was an abundance of the precious metal. Diaz was con- 
ducted to the banks of the river Hayna, not far distant, 
and found such fine specimens that he ventured to 
return to Isabella, where the commander, Bartholomew 
Columbus, not only pardoned him, but gave him offices 
of trust, and soon after went with him to test the new 
deposits. 

They were found to be so rich that a fortress was at 
once erected on the bank of the river, and soon the 



340 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

Adelantado went around by sea to the nearest point on 
the south coast, and there founded the city that still 
bears the name he gave it. He called it Santo Do- 
mingo, and also after his father, Dominico Columbus, 
the weaver of Genoa. 

The soldier's romance did not end here, so rumor 
tells us, for Miguel Diaz remained faithful to his Indian 
wife. 

The mines, though rich at first, became worked out 
at last, though even at the present time gold is mined 
there, by means of improved processes. From that 
region some immense nuggets were obtained; they 
were famous even in those days of rich findings, one of 
them being so large that the lucky discoverers used it 
as a table, serving upon it a roast -pig, entire, and 
boasting that never yet had any king of any land so 
rich a service of plate. The actual finder of the nug- 
get was a poor Indian girl, but her masters, of course, 
appropriated it, and neither pig nor gold did she get. 
In fact, no one appears to have eventually profited by 
its discovery, for the great nugget went to the bottom 
of the sea, in the sinking of the fleet of Bobadilla, when 
twenty sail went down with all on board, off Santo 
Domingo in a hurricane. 

On the eastern bank of the beautiful Ozama, Don 
Bartholomew erected his fort, and here first a settle- 
ment was commenced. It flourished a while, but was 
destroyed by a hurricane in the year 1502. Seeing 
then the superior advantages of the west bank of the 
river, the settlers removed thither, and the present city 
was begun, walls being built around it later, and about 



IN SANTO DOMINGO CITY. 343 

the year 1509 the great tower, or castle, called the 
" Homenage. " 

This fine castle, the oldest in America, and one of 
the best specimens extant of the architecture of those 
times, stands in a commanding position at the mouth of 
the river, upon the right bank, rising grandly above a 
high cliff of coralline rock, wave-worn and cavernous. 
Extremely picturesque in itself, its position greatly en- 
hances the effect, and it is well worth a journey thither 
to study. Around it, too, tradition and history have 
woven a tissue of fascinating stories, for it leads us back 
to those times when European civilization was wrestling 
with American barbarism, and the red Indians, now 
extinct, were in possession of the West Indian islands. 
The story oftenest repeated, however, that Columbus 
was once confined a prisoner within its walls, has no 
foundation in fact. The event of his imprisonment 
took place in the year 1500, when the settlement was on 
the east bank of the river, and he was confined in a small 
tower called afterward, from this event, the Torrecilla 
de Colon. This tower was situated at the extreme point 
of the eastern bank of the river as it reaches the ocean. 

I myself have investigated this statement and the 
location, and have the support of the local authorities 
and historians. A few bricks and stones are the only 
remains of the torrecilla; but the chapel, at the entrance 
of which the usurper, Bobadilla, read the proclamation 
that announced the downfall of Columbus and his own 
elevation to power, is still standing, though in a half- 
ruined state, on the east bank. It is known as Rosario, 
and pertains to a large sugar estate on the side of the 



344 



IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 



river opposite from the city, a conspicuous and beautiful 
plantation, with immense cuisine^ and all the equipment 
of a first-class " plant " for sugar refining. 

It is well attested that the great tower, the Homenage, 
was not built until, or near, 1509, eight or nine years 




THE HOUSE OF COLUJIBUS. 



after the imprisonment of the distinguished explorer, 
and consequently could not have held him. 

The most noteworthy object that attracts the atten- 
tion of one entering the Ozama on the steamer, lies a 
little beyond the castle and on the same side of the 
river; this is the Casa de Colon, as it is called, or the 
House of Columbus. It has, like the castle, no connec- 
tion with the great possessor of the name, except through 
his son Diego, who, succeeding to the titles and powers 
granted by the sovereigns of Spain to his distinguished 



I' 

J 



IN SANTO DOMINGO CITY. 345 

father, came to Santo Domingo in the year 1509, and 
began the erection of a palace. 

Having achieved distinction by his marriage with 
Dona Maria de Toledo, niece to the famous Duke of 
Alva, and arrogating the title of Viceroy of the colonies 
in America, Don Diego began his career in great splen- 
dor, and surrounded himself with all the dignities of a 
royal court. He erected on the bank of the Ozama 
a magnificent palace, fortified and defended with walls 
and cannon, and carried his pretensions to such an ex- 
tent that the king became alarmed and recalled him 
to Spain to give account of his proceedings. 

Beneath the bank, a short distance from the castle, 
the Syndic of the Ayuniamiento, or city council, once 
pointed out to me an old cannon, half-embedded in the 
sands, which tradition indicated as one that the city 
fathers of the time of Diego's reign had mounted and 
trained upon the palace, to bring the viceroy to terms. 
Upon investigation, this story was found to have sup- 
port in local history, and, through the kind -assistance 
of the Syndic, I secured this ancient piece of ordnance 
for exhibition at Chicago, where it was sent. It was a 
very heavy cannon, and one of the river barges was sunk 
in the attempt to ship it on the steamer. 

The fortified residence built by Don Diego rises 
directly above the wharf at which the steamer lands its 
passengers. It is a grand and gloomy pile of gray 
stone, roofless, and falling to decay ; its pillared corri- 
dors are destroyed ; its lower rooms are now occupied 
as stables for horses, goats and donkeys ; squalid huts 
of palm-wood lean against its walls, and filth almost 



346 



IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 



indescribable prevents the visitor from an investigation 

of the interior. 

The city of Santo Domingo is walled, and still retains 

intact many fortified battlements, which were erected 

three hundred and 
eighty years ago, with 
numerous fine sentry- 
boxes, and fortalezas, 
especially such as 
those of " San Anton ' ' 
and "Santa Barbara, " 
directly behind the 
churches of the same 
name. A walk around 
the walls will well re- 
pay the exertion; for 
though they have 
stood nearly four hun- 
dred years, they are 
yet firm and strong, 

THE SUN-DIAL TO BE SEEN IN SANTO DOMINGO. thOUgh mmanyplaCCS 

they are now being 
torn down to allow the city to spread out and beyond, 
as in Havana. 

The present city is crouched beneath the walls and 
within the ruins of the past. Against the massive walls 
of neglected convents, that once sheltered learned and 
holy men, lean the worthless shanties of a despicable 
people, who even huddle in holes hollowed out of the 
walls themselves. Entering the city through a great 
gateway in the walls, you are brought face to face with 




IN SANTO DOMIX'GO CITY. 347 

the dirt and squalor of the place; with its horrible 
streets, its broken and dangerous sidewalks, and its 
languid inhabitants. You will find a shoemaker, or 
tailor, or vender of groceries, occupying a small room 
in a building originally intended for a palace, the re- 
mainder of which is vacant and falling to pieces. In 
•every imaginable corner and crevice, under the arches 
by the city gate, and lurking in the corridors of once 
great mansions, the people dwell by day and sleep by 
night. 

Not all the structures of the city are of the mean 
character of those around the walls, for several of the 
streets are lined with buildings that will compare favor- 
ably with some in Cuba, and are of the same Spanish 
style of architecture. Around the central plaza are 
the Government buildings, the city hall, and the cathe- 
dral. These are all excellent structures, and there are 
some scattered through the city that show evidences of 
wealth and attempts at adornment. 

As the ancient buildings show us the architecture of 
Spain in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, so 
the modern houses are modeled after Spanish struct- 
ures of the present time. Not so many have the inner 
courts, or patios^ as in Mexico and Cuba, but all are 
massively built, with thick stone walls, heavy beams 
supporting tiled roofs and floors, grated windows, ornate 
halconies in the second stories, and long flaring water- 
spouts at the eaves, like batteries of guns; while heavy 
doors protect the entrances to the lower floors. In fact, 
viewing the houses along the streets of the city, and 
noting the unmistakably Spanish air of mingled decay 



348 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

and smartness about them, one might imagine himself 
in certain towns in Southern Spain. 

Of the twelve or thirteen thousand inhabitants of this 
city, a very small number are white, most of them hav- 
ing African blood in their veins in greater or less pro- 
portion. The people are pleasant, alert, courteous, with 
all the Spanish and tropical vivacity of speech and gest- 
ure, as well as the indolence and love of pleasures. 

Visiting the capital as the accredited representative 
of the Exposition, and having met the President at 
Puerto Plata some weeks earlier I was at once in- 
troduced to the best the city held, and every facility 
afforded for an examination of whatever of interest it 
contained. Our consular representative, Mr. Durham, 
was then absent on leave, but the courteous vice-consul, 
Mr. Juan Reed, a resident of the capital, but who spoke 
English like a native of the States, gave me the consular 
residence for occupation, and arranged with a small 
restaurant for my meals, so that I was at once installed 
and ready for business. The consulate was one of the 
old houses with thick walls and a balcony, one room on 
the ground floor and two above, that lined the principal 
street. I had complete possession, and at night no one 
but myself occupied the house — a small boy coming 
every morning to open the office, and a colored woman 
to take care of the rooms. 

Living quietly in the consulate, in sole occupancy, I 
had time and opportunity to study the history of the 
island in the intervals of my official duties, and of 
becoming acquainted with the ruined structures within 
the city walls. Morning and evening, sallying out in 



IN SANTO DOMINGO CITY. 



349 




COLUMBUS IN CHAINS. 



search of information, I gathered up the scattered 
threads of history, and found out just how much had 
been lost during the various revolutions and invasions 
through the past three centuries. 

Of manuscripts and minor objects of antiquity, there 
are hardly any remaining, and their loss is ascribed to 
the invasions of the Haitians, and to the ravages of the 
buccaneers of the seventeenth century. Sir Francis 
Drake (whom they style '■'■ el pirata Draakcc'') comes in 



350 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

for the chief share of the blame, for he sacked the city 
and destroyed everything he could lay his piratical 
hands upon. After vigilant search, I could find nothing 
more ancient in manuscripts than the Baptismal Book 
in the cathedral, dated 159 1. But few traditions did I 
discover that had not already been given to the world 
in general or in local histories. Not even of the great 
Las Casas, who once resided here, nor of Alonzo de 
Ojeda, nor Diego Colon. 

I tried everywhere to procure antiquities, as well of 
the Indian days as of the early Spanish times; but I 
had not much success ; an old cannon or two, an Indian 
drum, an ancient "Toledo," a few clay figulines, a. 
canoe and other articles of this class, were the best I 
could do. 

The best collection of Indian antiquities is in the pos- 
session of the archbishop, Monseilor Merino; but there 
is no local museum, nor any scientific society interested 
in the fascinating field for study afforded here at their 
very doors. No one appreciates the relics of the abori- 
gines at their full value, but when any attempt is made 
to procure them for study or exhibition, the owners at 
once attach a fictitious and prohibitory value, as always 
happens where ignorance prevails regarding objects of 
ethnical or archaeological interest. 

Santo Domingo's chief claim to distinction lies in its. 
connection with Columbus and the conquistadores^ and 
the principal reminders of their times are the few struct- 
ures remaining of their construction. 

The center of attraction is, of course, the cathedral, 
but besides this there are at least ten churches and 



IN SANTO DOMINGO CITY. 353 

convents of account in the city. The largest pile of 
ruins is that of the ancient convent, San Francisco, which 
stands conspicuous upon a hill behind the Casa de Colon, 
and about which cling all the traditions that fascinate 
the student of the times when the first missionaries 
came here to preach and to convert the Indians to the 
Catholic faith. 

But a small portion of the convent is habitable now, 
and that is used as an asylum for the insane. About 
thirty locos are now immured there, in a wing of the 
vast edifice walled off from the ruins. 

Entrance is freely granted to visitors, and one may 
wander at will through the deserted corridors, explore 
the labyrinthine mazes of the roofless cells, and seek for 
the burial-place of Ojeda, the lion-hearted soldier who 
lies interred at the walled-up entrance, and of Don 
Bartholomew Columbus, who is said to have been buried 
at the foot of the great altar. Arches, vine-draped and 
of magnificent proportions, towering walls with a forest 
of trees and vines growing on them and out of their 
crevices, deep holes where the treasure-seekers have 
dug for many years in vain — all these you may see in 
the ruins of San Francisco; but of the devoted mission- 
aries who dwelt here, and who built the immense struct- 
ure of which the crumbling stones alone remain, not a 
trace is to be found. Oblivion has claimed them all, 
save for their brief biographies in the annals of the 
order to which they belonged. There is said to exist 
a subterranean connection with another house of the 
order a long distance away, now used as a hotel, and 
known as the Casa del Cordon. 



354 



IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 



One of the oldest ruins here is that of San Nicolas, 
a convent church founded in 1509, the groined canopy 
of which, above the presbytery, is very beautiful, but 
destined soon to fall to pieces from decay. 

The most famous of the convent churches is that of 
Santo Domingo; to it are attached the walls of the 

first university founded in 
America, and in which the 
celebrated Las Casas min- 
istered. Deserted, ruined, 
and now in a disgraceful 
state of neglect and filth, 
the walls of this first of 
America's institutions of 
learning are a standing 
reproach to the people 
possessing this island. 
The interior of the church 
is most interesting, having 
been at some time care- 
fully restored, and one 
should by all means ex- 
amine its attractions. The pulpit is supported upon 
a serpent carved of wood, the high altar is simple but 
chaste in the carving of its retable, and the quaint old 
tombstones in the pavement have interesting inscrip- 
tions. One, I recall, attracted my attention particularly 
from having carved upon it, besides an inscription with 
Scriptural reference, the escudo, or coat of arms, of the 
family to which it pertained — a shield containing thir- 
teen stars. There was, of course, no connection between 




INSCRIPTION ON AN OLD TOMBSTONE. 

(Convent Church.) 



IN SANTO DOMINGO CITY. 355 

this heraldic device and the symbols we sometimes em- 
blazon upon our country's flag; but it brought to mind 
the thirteen original States of our Union, which were 
probably first grouped about the time the remains 
beneath this stone were here interred. 

A very beautiful church is Santa Barbara, near the 
river walls; it is old, simple in decoration inside, but 
with an exterior quaint and original. Another church, 
San Miguel on the hill, was built, it is said, by the 
king's treasurer, three hundred and fifty years ago; it 
is attractive, though small. La Merced is large and 
gloomy, and resembles Santo Domingo, while Santa 
Clara is quite handsome, having been restored, and 
a favorite with the ladies. This may be said also of 
the Regina, attached to which is a flourishing school, 
which was the care of the lamented Father Bellini. 
San Anton stands alone, and is only a shell of what was 
once a splendid church with fine arches. 

Thus I might go on at further length enumerating the 
attractions here for the artist and the antiquarian, and 
especially the ecclesiologist ; but I may, perhaps, have 
indicated enough to show that the old city is not devoid 
of fascinations, aside from its interest to the historian. 

Although I do not intend to make this volume a guide- 
book, and certainly cannot follow my inclination to 
thread the paths of history that are constantly tempting 
one to diverge from the main track of explorations, yet 
I cannot refrain from indicating to one who may follow 
in my footsteps, the principal attractions here. Within 
the walls one may find numerous bits that will recall 
old Spain, Algiers, and the coast of Africa at Tangiers 



356 



IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 



and Oran. One of the finest doorways is that of the 
old Mint, an excellent work in stucco, with fine and 
forcible medallions on the doorposts and lintels, and a 
beautiful window may be seen in an old house near the 
archbishop's palace. 

The most famous structure in the capital is the cath- 
edral, a long, low rambling- edifice occupying one side 




VIEW OF THE CATHEDRAL HIGH ALTAR AND RETABLE. 



of the plaza; it is of a style of architecture that may be 
called composite, but peculiarly its own. Externally it 
is not particularly attractive, but its interior is worthy 
of detailed description, and I am going to ask my readers' 
attention while I make a tour of the chapels. 

Entering by the great west doorway, before you lies 



IN SANTO DOMINGO CITY. 357 

a nave of grand proportions, with high massive pillars 
supporting a groined ceiling. Walking down to the 
high altar, we find it apparently insignificant; faced 
with plates of silver of modern and poor workmanship, 
and with the customary adornments. Back of the altar 
is a splendid retable of richly carved and gilded wood, 
but temporarily hidden by an immense silla from the 
old coro, which was taken away some time ago. In 
front of the retable, and at the right of the altar (facing 
the nave), are the two vaults from which the two " re- 
mains " of Columbus were taken. 

The first side-altar at the right is that of the Santa 
Reliquia; so called because in its sanctuary, closed by 
three locks, it contains a fragment of the cross of La 
Vega (mentioned in the chapter on Santo Cerro). This 
precious relic is set in gold and inclosed in a silver 
casket, and is shown only once a year. Here is a fine 
retable, richly gilded, and fortunately unrestored. The 
first chapel at the right is called Las Animas. It con- 
tains a fine painting of the Sanctissima Trinidad, and 
it has a privilegio from Benedicto XIV. , of the year 
1729, granting to anyone here celebrating a mass, on 
any day of the year, the privilege of rescuing a soul 
from purgatory. Next to this is the chapel of La 
Virgen de Dolores, with the tomb of an archbishop who 
died in 1858. 

Next beyond is the Puerta de Perdojt, or Door of 
Pardon, so called because an escaping criminal who 
reached this doorway would be safe. Over the door is a 
tablet informing us ttiat the cathedral was finished to 
this point in the year 1527, and through the doorway is 



358 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

a good view of the plaza, and the statue of Columbus 
standing there. The chapel next beyond the door has 
a tomb in it of the date 1524, a gory efhgy of Christ, 
with real skull and cross-bones beneath it, and a. privi- 
legio dated 1727. 

Two unimportant chapels come next; the sixth one 
contains a painting and the bones of a saint. The ca- 
pilla alia gracia has a retable of mahogany and two 
modern tombs of Dominican patriots; opposite this 
chapel, beneath the nave, lies buried the celebrated his- 
torian Oviedo. The last chapel is known as that of 
Jesus Predicador, and beyond it is the great west door 
called the Puerta de San Pedro, with a statue of San 
Jose on the right and one of San Miguel on the left. 
Turning back toward the altar mayor, we find first the 
capilla de Jesus en la Columna, in which is an image of 
lii Se flora de Biien Sucesos. The chapel next in sequence 
contains a painting said to have been brought here by 
Columbus, and presented by Isabella and Ferdinand. 
It is called la Virgen de Colon, and is very old, cracked 
and disfigured. There is also here a painting ascribed 
to a pupil of Murillo. 

The chapel that the people regard with peculiar ven- 
eration is the next in order. It is called San Francisco 
de Paula, and contains the first cross erected in Santo 
Domingo, in the year 15 14. This was on the site of the 
cathedral, which was begun at that time, but not finished 
until 1540. The cross is about nine feet high, and 
across its arms is an inscription setting forth the fact 
that it was planted here by the first religious men, and 
the date: ^' Esta es la insignia primera que se plant en 



IN SANTO DOMINGO CITY. 



359 



el centra de esta cavipo para dar principio a este magnifico 
templo, el aiio de MDXIV. " Wishing- to secure a repre- 
sentation of such an important relic at the Exposition, 
and not caring to ask the loan of the cross itself, I had 




THE PORTAL OF THK MliNT. — SANTO DOMINGO. 



a duplicate made by a local carpenter, which could not 
be distinguished from the original. Fortunately, at that 
time an old building attached to the castle was being 
renovated, and the governor of the castle, through the 
intercession of our Vice-Consul, gave me two old beams 
of mahogany, of the exact color of that composing the 



360 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

cross. These beams were over three hundred years 
old, and, as mahogany grows darker with age, they had 
the same rich hue as the cross. The carpenter worked 
most faithfully, and did credit to his profession, so that 
the duplicate was pronounced by the admiring natives to 
be the equal in every respect of the original. A native 
artist painted the inscription across the arms, and when 
dry, the cross was carefully wrapped in bagging and 
shipped to Washington, where it safely arrived and was 
sent on to the convent of La Rabida at the Exposition. 

This, the first cross erected in the city, has been con- 
founded with another and more famous one, which was 
planted on the hill of Santo Cerro, in the interior, and 
fragments of which are preserved as holy souvenirs in 
the cathedral and all the chief churches of the island. 
The latter cross, however, was set up about the year 
1494 or 1495, nearly twenty years previous to this of the 
cathedral, and is venerated on account of its connection 
with an apparition of the Holy Virgin — as related in 
the description of Santo Cerro. 

The eleventh chapel, in the order in which we have 
taken them, is that of the Sanctissima Sacramento^ and 
in it are portraits of the twelve apostles, ascribed to the 
great Spanish artist Velasquez. High above the altar 
is a Virgin, said to be by Murillo, but perhaps a copy, 
and if so a good one. Regarding the authenticity of 
these pictures, the Archbishop expressed some doubt, 
but said that there was much in favor of their genuine- 
ness. But I present them without comment, at the same 
time believing it very probable that they are genuine, 
for there is no motive for deceit, and they have all the 



IN SANTO DOMINGO CITY. 361 

appearance of the pictures by the same artist, which I 
myself have seen in the museums and churches of Spain, 

The sagrario of this chapel is of silver, and contains 
a figure of Christ, well carved from the horn of a deer. 
In the pavement is a tombstone over ten feet long, with 
a magnificent esciido : casque and helm with flowino- 
plumes; date 155 1. Adjoining, is the Puerta de Baii- 
tismo [Door of Baptism), with beautiful figures above it 
modeled in plaster. The capilla de Baiitisino succeeds, 
with a fine retable and paintings, but the last and largest 
is the capilla del Adelantado Rodrigo de Bastides, who, 
a one-time commander in Santo Domingo, now lies in- 
terred here, with his wife and child, as attested by a 
quaint inscription on the wall. This chapel is extremely 
fine and old, with domed ceiling, and the aziilejos, or 
Moorish tiles, are the most beautiful I have seen here. 

There is a tomb of an early archbishop here, with his 
figure, Jacent, sculptured in marble. Back of this tomb 
is a small cell, in which at present are held the alleged 
remains of Columbus. The two-leaved door of this cell 
is so fine that I had it reproduced in plaster and sent to 
the Exposition as an example of the wood-carving of the 
time it was made. At the left of the chapel is the altar 
"Ave Maria," facing the nave, with a gilded retable 
and excellent painting of Ave Maria, flanked by the 
kneeling figures of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, 
similar to those in the royal chapel at Granada, in Spain. 
Back of this altar is the vault from which the remains 
of Don Luis Colon were taken, on the side of the chan- 
cel opposite to that from which the ashes of the great 
Admiral were removed. 



# 



f 



362 



IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 



Thus having again reached the presbytery, we have 
made the tour of the cathedral and have noted every- 
thing in it, nearly, except the remains of the immortal 
Colon, which I shall reserve for another chapter. I 
trust it will appear that the cathedral is worthy the 
minute description I have given, and that the long 
journey has not been wearisome. 




XHK UoaiENAJE. 



XVIII. 

WHERE IS THE TOMB OF COLUMBUS ? 

IN the center of the plaza of Santo Domingo City, 
opposite the great door of the cathedral, stands a 
heroic figure in bronze of Christopher Columbus. It is 
dignified, commanding, impressive, and points with one 
extended hand toward the West, as though indicating 
to Europe the region of his discoveries. 

At the feet of the statue crouches the Indian Anaca- 
ona, an aboriginal queen, whose subjects were massacred 
by the companions of this same Columbus, and who was 
burned at the stake by one of his Spanish successors. 
Yet, with an irony born of ignorance of historical facts, 
the artist has represented this unfortunate princess as 
tracing an inscription in praise of one who, more than all 
others, aided in bringing about the extinction of her race. 
The irony of truth, indeed ; at one stroke presenting the 
character of one whose exalted sentiments were often 
at variance with his deeds. 

The life of Columbus shows him to have had a dual 
nature: two towns claim the honor of his birthplace; 
two nations hold the luster of his deeds in reverence ; 
two continents unite in laudation of his greatness ; after 

363 



364 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

his death two convents in Spain held his remains in 
charge, and now two islands lay claim to the absolute 
possession of his ashes. 

One of the features of my mission to the West Indies, 
as Commissioner of the Columbian Exposition, was to 
resolve this doubt concerning the present burial-place 
of Columbus. 

The great Admiral died on the twentieth of May, 
1506, in the city of Valladolid, in Spain, and his mortal 
remains were deposited in the convent church of the 
Franciscans. 

The last rites were celebrated with great pomp and 
ceremony in the church of Santa Maria la Antigua. 
But a few years later the body was given sepulture in 
the Carhija of Santa Maria de las Cuevas, in the city of 
Seville. ' ' It would seem, " says the Spanish academician 
who investigated the subject, "that the interment at 
Valladolid was an act of piety, merely, accorded at the 
time; but that in las Cuevas was in accordance with 
the expressed wish of the Admiral or his relatives." In 
the same convent, some years later, were deposited the 
remains of Diego, his son. 

The second removal of the body of Columbus had for 
its object the perpetual sepulture of his remains in the 
island of Espaiiola and the city of Santo Domingo. It 
was made in accordance with the petition of Dona Maria 
de Toledo, widow of Don Diego, who stated that it was 
the expressed desire of the Admiral himself ; and in con- 
sequence a royal gediila to that effect was issued by the 
Emperor, Charles V. , giving the requisite authority to 
the grandson of Columbus, Don Luis Colon. Permission 




ONE OF THE DISPUTED BIRTHPLACES. 

{Bouse in Cogoletto in which it is claimed Columbus was born.) 



WHERE IS THE TOMB OF COLUMBUS? 367 

was given to the family of Colon to occupy forever the 
great chapel {capilla mayor) of the cathedral of Santo 
Domingo; and this donation by Charles V. of the chapel 
as a place of interment, converted that part of the pres- 
bytery into private property, and no one unauthorized 
by them had any right to remove or efface even an 
inscription. 

There is no record of the transfer of the remains from 
Seville to Santo Domingo ; but the probable date was 
about 1540, as the first gediila giving the use of the 
chapel was issued in 1537 ; a second, confirming the first, 
was issued in 1539, and a third, confirming the second, in 
1540. It is thought that there was some delay in grant- 
ing sepulture in the cathedral, after the arrival of the 
remams; but that they were deposited there finally, 
concurrent evidence proves. In 1549, for instance, the 
first archbishop of that diocese writes : "The tomb of 
Don Cristobal Colon, where are his bones, is much ven- 
erated in this cathedral." The historian Herrera says: 
" From the Cuevas of Seville the bones of Columbus 
were removed to the city of Santo Domingo, and are in 
the great chapel of the cathedral; " and agreeing with 
him are the historians Alcedo, Navarette, and Washing- 
ton Irving. 

But although it would seem probable that some 
record should exist in the archives of the cathedral 
itself, it is not known that any has ever been discovered. 
The total absence of all early manuscript is attributed 
to the ravages of the pirate Drake, who was such a ter- 
ror to the Spanish West Indies, and who sacked the 
'city; embedded in the roof of the cathedral to-day is a 



368 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

cannon-ball, half -protruding from the masonry, which 
is said to have been fired from a gun on board one of 
Drake's vessels. Nor is there any tradition of records 
preserved by the oldest inhabitants of the city, derived 
from their ancestors, or from people who lived in the 
latter part of the last century. It cannot be shown, 
either, that there was ever a stone, tablet, or monument, 
to mark the place of interment; and this seems the 
more strange as there are magnificent memorials of 
the early archbishops, of the military governor, Rodrigo 
de Bastides, who died in 1527, of his wife, who died 
in 1552, and others of that century, several of them 
contemporaries of Columbus. 

But that Columbus was interred in the gVeat chapel 
of the cathedral, there is no room for doubt, as it has 
been proven by tradition and by contemporary evidence. 
Aside from the testimony already cited, we have also 
the record of over a hundred years later, that when the 
English invaded the island the archbishop ordered the 
tombs to be covered with earth, to prevent their dese- 
cration, "especially that of the old Admiral, which is 
in the evange Ho oim.y h.o\y church, and chapel." And 
when the church was nearly ruined by an earthquake, 
the archbishop mentioned among other reasons for re- 
storing the temple, that "in the capilla mayor is interred 
the illustrious Don Cristoval Colon." Again, in 1683, 
the diocesan synod of Santo Domingo states : " The bones 
of C. Colon are there in a leaden case, in the presbytery 
according to the tradition of the old inhabitants 
of the island." 

Just a hundred years later, the historian Moreau de 



■ ■ a* r! 






BRONZE STATUE OB' COLUMBUS BEFORE THE DOOR OF THE CATHEDRAL IN 
SANTO DOMINGO CITY. 



WHERE IS THE TOMB OF COLUMBUS? 371 

St. Mery, states that the dean of the cathedral affirmed 
that there was a box of lead, inclosed in one of stone, 
which tradition, constant and unvarying, pointed to as 
containing the bones of Columbus. Thus through two 
hundred years we have accumulative evidence that 
the last mortal remains of the great Admiral rested in 
the cathedral of Santo Domingo, and it might be as- 
sumed that in the course of human events they would 
be likely to remain there to the end of time, had not an 
event occurred that necessitated, the Spaniards thought, 
their removal. 

In 1795, by the treaty of Basle, Spain ceded to France 
"the cradle of her greatness in the New World;" but 
there were those who remembered that the ashes of 
Columbus were yet in Santo Domingo, and felt that it 
would be unworthy the greatness of Spain to allow 
these relics of the man who had made her first among 
nations to pass under another flag. 

The delivery of the colony into French possession 
was not accomplished until 1801, but the project of 
transferring the ashes of America's discoverer was exe- 
cuted in 1795. As already remarked, there was neither 
tombstone nor inscription, nor any indication whatever 
as to the resting-place of the remains; there was not a 
native of the country who remembered having seen 
such, nor any tradition extant directly derived from 
their ancestors. Therefore the Spaniards, in proceed- 
ing to the examination, had to be guided solely by tra- 
ditions of the ecclesiastical authorities of the cathedral, 
and residents of the capital. 

And what did these tell them ? Simply what has 



372 



IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 



been quoted for generations : that the relics of Colum- 
bus had been deposited in the cathedral, on the gospel 
side of the altar, at the place where the canopy of the 
archbishop used to stand. On the twentieth of Decem- 
ber, 1795, a group of distinguished gentlemen, including 
commissioners deputed by the Duke of Veragua, the 
lineal descendant of the Admiral, opened a vault above 
the presbytery on the gospel side of the altar, which 
was a yard in depth and breadth. According to the 
report signed by the clerk of the Royal Court of Justice 
of Santo Domingo, there were found therein some plates 
of lead about a foot long, bearing evidence of having 
been part of a box or casket of that metal, and some 
fragments of bones and dust. These were gathered to- 
gether on a plate, and afterward placed in a leaden box, 
and with great solemnity taken on board the man-of- 
war Salt Lorenzo, on which they were transported to 
Cuba. Arrived at Havana, the revered relics were 
borne in procession to the cathedral, and there deposited 
in a niche opened in the wall of the presbytery, on the 
evangelist side, and the spot designated by a marble 
slab, with a bust and elegant Latin inscription, bearing 
date 1796. 

Thus far I have followed the Infonne of the Royal 
Academy of Spain, which exhaustively investigated the 
subject of the last resting-place in 1879, and the mem- 
bers of which were of the opinion that the remains of 
five members, at least, of the Columbus family were 
interred in the presbytery of the cathedral, namely: 
Christopher, Diego his son, Bartholomew his brother, 
Luis his grandson, and Cristobal the second grandson. 



WHERE IS THE TOMB OF COLUMBUS? 



373 



In the year 1877, while repairs were being made in 
the chancel of the cathedral of Santo Domingo, a vault 
was discovered on the left side (facing the nave) contain- 
ing a small box of lead that fell to pieces on removal, 




■-«I!I1 



THE COLUMBUS VAULTS IN SANTO DOMINGO CATHEDRAL. 
(/. Vault from which ashes were removed, 1795. //. Vault opened in 1877.) 

but which had an inscription that read: '■^ El Alviirante, 
D. Luis Colon, Duque de Veragua, Marques de" — (pre- 
sumably of Jamaica). 

It was not known that the grandson of Columbus had 
been interred here — but this was indubitable evidence; 
it revived the tradition that his grandfather was buried 
on the opposite side, and it was decided by the bishop 



374 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 



I 



to search the alleged resting-place of the bones of the 
Admiral while the repairs were progressing. 

After a preliminary excavation, the investigators 
opened the spot indicated by tradition as that from which 
the remains transported to Havana had been taken; a 
small vault was brought to light, which was entirely 
empty. This, without doubt, was the vault from which 
the ashes taken away in 1795 had been removed, and 
Canon Bellini, in charge of the investigation, believed 
' that this would only tend to prove the truth of the 
Spanish account. But the next day the space between |j 
this empty vault and the wall of the cathedral was * 
sounded, and some indications of another tomb were 
discovered. A piece of a large stone slab that had 
been partly revealed, was broken off, and through this 
opening it was seen that there was indeed a vault, and 
that it contained an object which appeared like a square 
box. M 

Instantly all was excitement. The chief vestryman 
hastened at once to inform the archbishop of what had 
occurred, while the foreign consuls, notably the Italian, 
M. Cambiaso, were notified, and came to the cathedral/ 
where the canon was awaiting them with the workmen. ^_ 
The men were working under the direction of Sr. J. ^ 
M. Castillo, a civil engineer who had charge of all im- 
portant works in the island, and with whom I myself 
have frequently conversed. Sr. Castillo died in 1892, 
and his loss has been severely felt in Santo Domingo, wM 
where his distinguished talents as an engineer and his 
genial presence were highly esteemed. 

The canon and the engineer guarded the vault until 



I 



WHERE IS THE TOMB OF COLUMBUS? 



375 



the arrival of the civic and ecclesiastical dignitaries, 
when in their presence the opening was enlarged, and 
the object inside revealed to be a box of lead, resting 
upon two bricks. The top was covered with dust and 
small pieces of stone, but it was apparent that there 
was an inscription 
on it. Everything 
was then left as 
found, the cathe- 
dral doors locked, 
and a guard placed 
around them, the 
keys being left in 
the possession of 
Canon Bellini. 

On the tenth of 
September the box 
was taken out, in 
the presence of the 
civil, ecclesiastical 
and military author- 
ities of the capital, 
of the consular 
corps, and a great 
number of natives 

and foreigners. Only a superficial examination of the 
bones could be made at that time, but it seemed pat- 
ent to everybody present that at last the veritable re- 
mains of Columbus had been brought to light, and no 
one there doubted. 

The enthusiasm manifested by the people bordered 




THE C'OLUMBl.S CASKET. 
(^End View.) 



376 



IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 



cn delirium, and so, says the local historian, "If it be 
permitted to those who have left this vale of tears to 
enjoy what afterward occurs on earth, then Columbus 
must have felt unbounded satisfaction, almost equal to 
that when his eyes for the first time contemplated the 
shores of America, in seeing that the discovery of his 




THK COLUMBUS CASKET. 

{Front View.) 

remains, forgotten during so many centuries, caused 
such deep emotion in the hearts of so many people." 

An examination of the contents of the lead case re- 
vealed human bones crumbling and fragmentary, and 
only a few parts of the skeleton complete, the skull 
entirely reduced to dust; even those bones appearing 
entire at the discovery were found to have rapidly 



:m 



WHERE IS THE TOMB OF COLUMBUS? 377 

decomposed at an examination some six months later. 
Besides the bones and dust, a bullet was found in the 
case, and a silver plate. 

The box in which the remains were found is entirely 
of lead, and when closed is twenty-three centimeters 
high, forty-four long, and twenty-one wide. The lid is 
forty-four centimeters long and twenty-one wide, with 
an overlapping edge in front and on the sides, and like 
the box is made of a single sheet of lead. The box is 
in a good state of preservation, and it is impossible to 
state whether it had been buried one, two, or three 
hundred years, as it is well known that lead after long 
exposure becomes covered with a thin coating of pro- 
toxide, which preserves it for centuries without other 
alteration. The color is dark gray, or of oxide of lead, 
such as would naturally result from the exposure. As 
to its preservation : the vault in which it was found is 
entirely of stone and brick, very dry, and without wood 
or any other substance that could affect the metal. 

On the outside of the lid was this inscription: D. de 
la A. Per Ate ^'^ which was interpreted to mean, "Dis- 
coverer of America, First Admiral." It has been ad- 
vanced, as an argument against the authenticity of 
these remains, that the term "America" was not in 
use at the time the remains of Columbus were brought 
to Santo Domingo, and hence the inscription must be 
spurious, and fraud was implied, if not alleged. Re- 
garding the "fraud," no one acquainted with the cir- 
cumstances of discovery and the high character of the 
people concerned, will for a moment admit it; and it 
has been satisfactorily shown that the term America 



378 



IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 



was in iise as early as 1520, or sixteen years at least be- 
fore the translation of the remains. On the inside of the 
lid were the words, ^'' I litre y Edo Varon^ Dn Cristoval 
Colon.'' On the right end of the case was the letter A^ 
on the left end and on the front, C. The silver plate 
found in the case also had inscribed on it the name and 



pa£l*<^ ^-^ 




tosinoian \si i una. TicifX 3/ttxefoote. ^^^ '" 

I, 



-.1 Uo^ 6»,a»t Ct.Ji}C<U,„J<.^X^^^-c- 



(jjjt. (j^i^A^ 




FAC-SIMILE OF OLD BAPTISMAL BOOK. 



titles of Columbus ; and it was held by the Dominicans 
that the proof of genuineness was overwhelming: in the 
inscriptions, and in the locality in which the case was 
found. 

Regarding the writing on the silver plate, an objec- 
tion has been raised that the s in the spelling of Cris- 
toval was not of the kind in vogue in the sixteenth 
century, and could not be genuine; but this I myself 









.1 




^ 

W 

^ 



e 
P 

y^ 

^ 






..^-n 



5^ 



•g 




if 



.a 



^* 



WHERE IS THE TOMB OF COLUMBUS? 381 

proved to be an error, for in the oldest record in the 
cathedral, the Book of Baptisms, bearing- date 159 1, this 
same form of s is used. I photographed the page on 
which it occurs, in order to show that it was authentic. 
Having orders from the chief of my department at 
Washington to obtain a fac-simile of the caskets in 
which the remains found in 1877 were held, I had a 
perfect duplicate made, with ancient characters and all, 
and this was sent to Chicago for exhibition, with other 
relics of Columbus, in the convent of La Rabida. After 
the identification of the bones, they were deposited in 
a cell behind one of the chapels in the cathedral, and 
eventually the leaden case was inclosed in one of satin- 
wood and glass, so that everything is visible to the 
observer — case, bones and inscriptions. 

The alleged discovery of these remains, of course, 
as soon as the startling information became public, 
attracted the attention of Spain; for her claim to the 
true relics was in danger of being invalidated. The 
Royal Academy at Madrid discussed the question at 
great length, and finally published a book containing 
the results of their investigations. The subject was 
treated elaborately and exhaustively, but with evident 
heat and some prejudice, and while it sums up the evi- 
dence against the validity of the Domingo bones, yet it 
offers nothing to prove that the boveda (or vault) opened 
by the Spaniards in 1795, contained the true relics of 
Columbus; in fact it is all of a negative character. 

But the conclusion reached by the Academy is that 
"The remains of Cristoval Colon are in the cathedral 
of Habana, in the shadow of the glorious banner of 



382 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

i 

Castile. . . . It is most fit that over his sepulcher 
i/vaves the same flag that sailed with him from Palos in 
the Santa Maria. . . . There rest the bones of the 
First Admiral of the Indies; there is his last abode." 

I sincerely desire to assent to this opinion, feeling 
how much more fit it were if the remains still reposed 
tinder the flag Columbus himself adopted; but after 
having sifted all the evidence carefully, after having 
seen the place selected by the Admiral for his last 
abode, after having examined the men who were pres- 
ent at the discovery, the casket, the inscriptions, and 
even the relics themselves, I am forced to admit that 
the Dominicans have a stronger case than the Havanese. 
As already shown, the Spaniards found absolutely noth- 
ing to prove that the ashes they removed in 1795 were 
those of the Admiral, and no claim is advanced that 
they did. The only tradition they had to guide them 
was that the remains were on the gospel side of the 
altar, and this is equally applicable to the vault opened 
in 1877. The error of the Spaniards lay in their igno- 
rance of the fact that there were two vaults, closely 
contiguous ; that only a few inches distant, in fact, from 
the one they opened, was another. Both vaults are 
under the chancel, both on the gospel side; but the one 
containing the remains alleged by the Dominicans to be 
those of Columbus is nearer (close to) the wall. The 
Spaniards in making their excavation, by chance opened 
a vault wherein were the fragments of a leaden case, and 
vestiges of human remains; and as they could not pre- 
sume that close at hand, even within the same chancel, 
there was another vault, they concluded that what they 



WHERE IS THE TOMB OF COLUMBUS? 383 

found was what they wanted. Such a mistake might 
have occurred to the Dominicans themselves; but is it 
not strange that the tomb of the discoverer of a world 
did not bear an inscription, not even the common cross, 
which is not denied the meanest of the poor? 

Whose, then, were the remains carried to Havana in 
1795? It was at first thought that they were those of 
Don Bartholomew, Christopher's brother who died at 
Santo Domingo in 15 14 ; but finally it was concluded that 
they pertained to Don Diego, the son and Viceroy, who 
was, according to history, and at the expressed wish of 
his wife, interred in the chancel of the cathedral. It 
must then (says the chronicler I have been following) 
be acknowledged that, while there is no evidence to the 
contrary, the relics taken to Havana with so much pomp 
must have been those of Diego Columbus, son of the 
great Discoverer, and who, during his first term as gov- 
ernor of Hispaniola, greatly promoted the colonization 
of Cuba. This being true, it seems, after all, most fit- 
ting that Cuba should have secured (even though 
unwittingly) the relics of one who was so closely iden- 
tified with her colonization, and that Santo Domingo 
should have retained (though unconsciously) those of 
the great man who founded the first city on her soil, 
and whose last wish it was that he might rest forever in 
her embrace. 

Since the discovery, accusations of fraud have been 
made, but no evidence has been adduced that such was 
perpetrated ; in truth, nothing could be sustained against 
men of such blameless lives as the archbishop, then 
the Apostolic Delegate of the Pope, Monsenor Roque 



384 



IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 



Cocchia, Bishop of Orope, and the canon of the cathe- 
dral, BelHni. 

I have followed, in writing this account of the last 
burial-place of Columbus, first, the Informe of the 
Spanish Academy, and second, the work published in 
Santo Domingo by Emiliano Tejera, whose words even 
I have sometimes used, as translated from the original 




THE TABLET AND THE VAULT AT SANTO DOMINGO. 

Spanish, and to whom, as a friend and an author, I am 
indebted for his impartial statements. Several other 
pamphlets have been published on this question, but 
the two cited above suffice to give one all the facts on 
both sides. Tejera closes his work, ''Los Restos de 
Colon,''' with an impassioned appeal to the world for a 
just and impartial verdict. After reciting the trials and 



WHERE IS THE TOMB OF COLUMBUS? 385 

sorrows of Columbus, he says: "And what did Fate 
reserve for the discoverer of America in return for so 
much faith, and a life devoted to a realization of the 
soul's ideal? Sad to confess, the hatred of the envious, 
the sorrows of a faithful servant, the crushing weight of 
insult, shipwreck, disappointment, and finally a sad and 
solitary death, filled to overflowing with the bitterness 
of one who, after having consecrated his whole life to 
the cause of humanity, goes down to the grave seeing 
that mankind has for him only a Calvary. Nearly three 
hundred years after the death of the great Admiral, 
posterity gave evidence of a desire to pay their debt of 
gratitude, and it was decided to transfer his remains 
from one Spanish colony to another. But those in 
charge of the removal made a mistake, and homage was 
paid to a stranger, while the great hero remained for- 
gotten in his stone vault in Santo Domingo. Another 
great wrong maybe inflicted to-day: for his authentic 
remains are on the eve of being disowned, and thus the 
oblivion of three centuries will be perpetuated." 

It may seem trivial to the outside world, but to the 
Dominicans the question is a vital one, and they desire, 
of all things, to prove to the world that the ashes of 
Columbus remain in the cathedral, and the island in 
which he himself desired they should finally rest. 

In view of the difficulties in the way of an adjustment 
of differences between the Dominican and the Spanish 
governments, perhaps it might not seem presumptuous 
in me to suggest that they effect a compromise, and one 
of them resign to the other the ashes in its possession, 
depositing them in a common vault, erect above them 



386 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

a monument commemorating the many virtues of their 
erstwhile owners; and thus the admirers of the great 
Columbus would feel quite certain of their hero, and 
not be harassed by doubts that they were paying their 
devotions at the wrong shrine. 

Shortly after my arrival at Santo Domingo, I was 
taken to the cathedral and was shown the alleged re- 
mains of the great Admiral. Since their removal from 
the vault in which they were discovered, in 1877, they 
have been inclosed in a casket of satin-wood, and are 
now guarded in a little cell at the left of the great altar 
in the cathedral. To obtain permission to view the re- 
mains, it is necessary to secure" the sanction of the ecclesi- 
astical, municipal and national authorities. Each body 
holds a key to the cell, and a delegate from each must 
accompany the visitor. As Commissioner from the 
Exposition, I was given the extraordinary privilege of 
viewing the restos, the Minister of Foreign Relations 
accompanying me to and through the cathedral, and 
Sehor Pichardo, a local historian of renown, explaining 
to me all the details. I was shown the vaults, the frag- 
ments of the leaden case out of the grave of Don Luis 
Colon, the cell, and finally the remains themselves. I 
photographed everything appertaining to the relics and 
the things having a bearing upon their authenticity, 
and while in the thick of it a register was brought me, 
in which I was requested to inscribe my signature and 
my opinion as to the legitimacy of the bones. But it 
did not appear to me that I was there to give an opin- 
ion, having been sent by my Government merely to col- 
lect data for others wiser than myself in historical lore 



WHERE IS THE TOMB OF COLUMBUS? 387 

to elaborate. So I took council with myself, while the 
eyes of the eager officials were upon me, and, instead of 
committing myself to an irrevocable opinion, I quietly 
walked all around the question of legitimacy, and wrote 
how happy I was to view this grand cathedral, this one- 
time resting-place of the ashes of the great Columbus, 
etc. , etc. , having seen so many places identified with 
his life and grand achievements in other lands. When 
this was translated to the officials in waiting it did not 
seem, somehow, to satisfy them, and a deep silence fell 
around us, broken at last by the indignant exclamation 
of my guide, that I had not pronounced upon the authen- 
ticity of the relics at all. 

Concerning this question of the present resting-place 
of the bones of Columbus, I may say, however, that I 
have declared myself in favor of Santo Domingo; but 
it was not until after I had resigned my position as 
Commissioner, and when my declaration would not con- 
vey with it an official sanction. My mission merely was 
to collect everything pertaining to Columbus, not only 
in Santo Domingo, but in Cuba and throughout all the 
Antilles, that this historical material might be presented 
at Chicago for inspection by a competent committee, 
who would then perhaps determine as between the 
claims of the two islands. To give an opinion while 
then in the performance of my duty, as above stated, 
would seem at least an impertinence, and could not be 
entertained. 



XIX. 



PUERTO RICO AND PONCE DE LEON. 




T 



*HE island of Puerto 
Rico was discovered 
by Columbus on his second 
voyage to the New World, 
in November, 1493. Sailing- 
northwesterly up from the 
Caribbees, leaving behind 
him the attractive group of 
the Virgins, he had scarcely 
lost sight of these before 
another and larger island 
came to view. Coasting its 
southern shore, the Span- 
iards feasted their eyes upon 
a succession of hills and mountains covered with 
glorious forests, and sailed in and out of beautiful 
harbors fringed with tropical trees above beaches of 
glistening sands. 

Borinqiien .was the native name of this large and 
fertile island, but the European discoverer called it 
San Juan Bautista, afterward changed to Puerto Rico. 

388 



ARMS OF PUERTO RICO. 



PUERTO RICO AND PONCE DE LEON. 389 

Columbus landed at a harbor which he called Agua- 
dilla, or the watering-place ; here he filled his water- 
casks, and, after remaining a couple of days, sailed 
thence over to the island of Santo Domingo, only sixty 
miles distant. Arriving eventually at Samana (the 
Golfo de las Flechas), an Indian who had been taken 
from this spot to Spain on the previous voyage, and 
been baptized and instructed in the faith, was sent 
ashore in a boat. The Indian was then set at liberty, 
bearing many trinkets and kind messages to the ca- 
cique, but nothing was ever heard of him again. One 
Indian still remained with Columbus; he was a young 
Lucayan, a native of Guanahani, and he had been chris- 
tened Diego Colon, after the brother of the Admiral ; he 
served the Spaniards as interpreter. 

On the twenty-fifth of November the peaks of Monte- 
Cristi appeared to the eyes of the anxious Spaniards, 
and they came to anchor in the mouth of the Rio del 
Oro, where they found the dead bodies of some of their 
countrymen who had been killed at the time of the 
massacre at Navidad. Next day they discovered that 
all the garrison had been killed, and saw that the 
friendly chieftain, Guacanagari was wounded and ill. 

At first they distrusted the cacique's story, but he 
was at length taken on board the ships, and his wonder- 
ing eyes beheld the various plants and animals brought 
over for the settlement. The Indian then saw, for the 
first time, cattle, sheep, swine and horses; and, as the 
largest native quadruped of Haiti was no bigger than 
a raccoon, he was astounded at their size. The horses, 
in particular, excited his wonderment to the highest 



390 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

degree; they were the first ever brought to America, 
and he shrank from them as terrible monsters, that 
would devour him at the Spaniards' commands. 

If anything further were needed to impress the sim- 
ple Indians with the prowess of Columbus, it was 
presented in the persons of the Carib warriors, taken 
prisoners in the Southern islands, and from whom the 
timid Haitiens shrank in affright. But there were other 
captives to whom the cacique was attracted. These 
were certain Indian women from Puerto Rico, whom 
Columbus had rescued from the Caribs ; but who were 
detained by him in captivity. Among them was one 
woman of fine presence, whom even the Spaniards 
admired and had named Catalina. Guacanagari was at 
once enamored of this princess from Puerto Rico, and 
conveyed to her the information that she and her friends 
would find liberty and a warm welcome awaiting them, 
if they could but join him at his village on shore. The 
women made the attempt, dropping overboard about 
midnight and swimming for the shore. It was three 
miles distant, and the sea was rough, but they all 
reached the land in safety, though four of them were 
recaptured on the beach. A beacon light was burning, 
and the cacique was in waiting. Catalina and her com- 
panions escaped with him to the forest, and when a 
search was made, next morning, all the Indians had 
disappeared. 

Guacanagari, henceforth, was regarded as a fugitive, 
to be dealt with as a felon, and was eventually hounded 
to death by the men he had most benefited. Catalina 
disappears from view with her flight into the forest. 



PUERTO RICO AND PONCE DE LEON. 391 




GENERAL HEUREAUX. 

(President of the Republic of Santo Domingo) 

The Island of Borinquen, or Porto Rico, from which 
the Indian maid was taken, was left undisturbed for 
fifteen years after its discovery; but in 1508 Ponce de 
Leon, the Governor of the eastern province of Santo 
Domingo, had his attention called to it by reports of its 
rich soil and mineral wealth. He sailed across the 
channel and landed at Aguada, with a caravel of sol- 
diers. He was hospitably entertained by the cacique of 
that province, Agueynaba, who showed him some rivers 
with golden sands. 

The bay of Aguadilla is broad and beautiful, with 



392 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 



miles of cocoa palms sweeping its sandy shores, and with 
a background of the rounded hills that distinguish the 
island of Puerto Rico. Both Columbus and De Leon 
were charmed with these peaceful shores, and with good 
reason. The Admiral watered his ships at the spring 
of Aguadilla, which to-day still gushes forth from the 
earth in great volume, and gives the spot its name: 
Aguada, or Aguadilla ; good watering-place. 

Leaving here some of his men, De Leon returned to 
Santo Domingo, and came back with an armament, 
finally locating at a spot near the present capital of the 
island, San Juan. Not long after he commenced the 
distribution of the natives of the island as slaves, to his 
followers, in repartiniientos^ as the custom had prevailed 
in Santo Domingo. The gentle Indians had never before 
been subjected to any restraint, and they soon revolted, 
killing many Spaniards before they were subjected. 

During this revolt some of the Indians tried an ex- 
periment to ascertain if it were true (as the Spaniards 
told them) that the white strangers were immortal, and 
could not be killed. Two of them found a Spaniard in 
a lonely place, took him to a river, and held his head 
under water two or three hours, after that watching the 
body for two days. Well satisfied from this experiment 
that the Spaniard was really dead, these conscientious 
Indians reported to that effect to their chief, Agueynaba, 
and the massacre was begun. But as the Spaniards 
were being constantly re-enforced by soldiers coming in 
caravels out of the sea, the simple Indians did fin all)' 
believe that those they had slain revived, in some mys- 
terious way, and so submitted. 



\ 



PUERTO RICO AND PONCE DE LEON. 393 

Ponce de Leon has a name for gentle deeds and 
chivalrous actions; but he did not hesitate to employ 
the most barbarous methods for the subjection of the 
natives. To this day has survived the fame of his great 
bloodhound " Berezillo. " The great dog was a terror 
to the Indians, springing upon them and tearing them 
to pieces, and his services were so highly valued that he 
drew the pay of a cross-bowman. After years of fiend- 
ish work in the Spanish service, this Berezillo was 
finally killed by a poisoned arrow, while swimming a 
stream in pursuit of a Carib. 

The first city founded, Caparra, was located across the 
bay southwest from the present capital. Caparra was 
abandoned in 1522, and nothing of consequence remains 
to indicate its site. San Juan de Puerto Rico, founded 
by De Leon in 15 11, became the capital, and is now the 
chief city, though not leading in population. 

The chief ports to-day are San Juan and Arecibo on 
the north coast, Humacao and Fajardo on the east, 
Arroyo, Ponce and Guayanilla on the south coast, 
Mayaguez and Aguadilla on the west. 

The island is mountainous, the interior being a vast 
sea of rounded hills, yet with such gentle slopes and 
fertile soil as to be cultivable to their summits, and 
possessing great possibilities for the agriculturist. The 
highest mountain, the nucleus of the central chain that 
traverses the island from east to west, is Luquillo ; it is 
about four thousand feet high. There are many rivers, 
large and small ; numerous caves, in which the Indians 
formerly lived ; several hot springs, good roads between 
the chief cities, and an improved cultivation throughout 



394 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 



f 



the island. " The cattle on a thousand hills " is an ex- 
pression that may well be used in speaking of Puerto 
Rico, as the hills are to be counted by thousands, and the 
island is famous for its fine breeds of live-stock. All 
the islands south of Puerto Rico send to it for its horses 
and cattle, which are shipped thence in large numbers. 

To conclude these statistics (which are only given 
because so little is really known of this island), Puerto 
Rico is nearly square in outline ; it contains some three 
hundred and fifty Spanish square leagues, with a popu- 
lation of about seven hundred and fifty thousand. 

The largest city is Ponce, with a population of per- 
haps thirty-five thousand ; it is on the south coast, in 
the center of the sugar region. San Juan, the capital, 
has but twenty-five thousand inhabitants, and there are 
several cities with populations numbering at least twenty 
thousand each. 

The capital, San Juan de Puerto Rico, is most advan- 
tageously situated on an island connected with the main- 
land of the north coast by a bridge and causeway. A 
magnificent high road (the camino real) connects it with 
Ponce; a line of railway has been projected and is par- 
tially constructed, that will eventually traverse the whole 
island along the coast, connecting all important towns 
and cities, and short lines now run out into the country. 
San Juan is as compact a city as ever was built ; it is 
on a peninsula terminated by a fortress, surrounded 
by massive walls of hardened stone and mortar, with a 
height in places of from fifty to one hundred feet. Be- 
hind the citadel is a broad parade ground, but except 
for this open, space the houses cover the area within the 



PUERTO RICO AND PONCE DE LEON. 397 

walls, from the eastern to the western fort. The houses 
are of stone, with iron balconies, and of all colors: pink, 
gray, blue, yellow, drab — but none white. These min- 
gling tints produce a harmony of tones most gratifying 
to the eye. All have shutters and jalousies, but no win- 
dows, and all are chimneyless. The cathedral, theater, 
city hall, the Governor-General's palace, and several 
churches, are the principal structures. Below the walls 
are the wharves, about which and on the Marina^ only, 
wooden houses are suffered to be built. Through the 
Marina is a broad concrete walk lined with seats, adorned 
with rude statues, and with an ornamental garden of 
flowers and tropic trees lying between it and the high 
walls, which are gray and stark, with ornate and antique 
sentry-boxes projecting at intervals. 

Through an arched entrance in the lower wall runs 
the only street into the city when the gates fronting the 
sea are closed ; from this entrance a road leads out into 
the country, at first through open pasture, then dipping 
toward the shore of the bay, where it is bordered with 
cocoa-palms that increase in number as the distance 
lengthens from the town. Here and there is a little 
village, full of shops and drinking booths, where the 
people come from the city to drink and pass the time 
in the afternoon and on Sundays. Beyond, is another 
broad waste, then the outer fort at the bridge is reached, 
where the stream and shore are bordered with man- 
groves. In the distance is a misty mountain, some two 
thousand feet in height, and from this circle around 
hundreds and hundreds of hills and hillocks, form- 
ing a panorama of exceeding loveliness. These hills 



398 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

approach the shore, growing smaller and smaller as they 
near it, flecked with every shade and shadow of cloud, 
and gleaming in the sun. A village shows here and 
there in a valley; the cocoa-palms stand in long golden 
ranks on the shores of the bay. There are few trees, 
however, in town, save in the plaza, a palm on the 
Marina^ and at the casa blanca^ the house of De Leon. 

My arrival at San Juan, with the invitation from our 
Government to participate in the Exposition, was during 
Christmas week, 1891. The whole city was in festivity; 
there was grand mass in the cathedral, music continually 
in the plaza, and a special view of the holy patroness la 
Virgen de Providencia^ whose cloak is said to be worth 
fifteen hundred dollars, and her jewels twenty thousand 
dollars. In response to a cablegram from St. Thomas, 
Mr. Hayden, the American Vice-Consul, met me on 
board the steamer and took me with him to quarters 
in the consulate. His good offices and the hospitality 
of our Consul, Mr. Stewart, were freely placed at my 
disposal, and through them I was at once enabled to 
communicate with the authorities. 

The consular residence was in a large and noble struc- 
ture on the bluff above the fortifications, and in the 
healthiest part of the city commanding a glorious view 
of the harbor and distant mountains. It is important, 
in securing residence in San Juan, to find, if possible, a 
spot elevated above the dirty streets and houses, that 
are crowded and swarming with a careless population. 
For every year the yellow fever attacks the foreigners 
here, and many succumb to its dread ravages. At the 
time of my arrival the Consul was at home on sick leave, 







I 'i 



PUERTO RICO AND FONCE DE LEON. 401 

having been prostrated with fever from which he barely 
recovered. Most of the foreign residents Hve in the 
immediate suburbs, like Cangrejo, where there are gar- 
dens of palms and fruits, and where the air is pure. 

The Governor and Captain-General, Senor Don Jose 
Lasso y Perez, received me graciously and acted upon 
my suggestions with promptitude. A commission was 
soon appointed, consisting of gentlemen identified with 
the island's best interests, and after my departure they 
had charge of the Exposition matters and seemed alive 
to the demands of the occasion. Although a Spanish 
island, one of the few possessions yet remaining to 
Spain in America, yet there is the same discontent with 
the home government, so manifest in Cuba. Exces- 
sive taxes and an alien soldiery, together with extensive 
and expensive office-holdings by foreigners, have con- 
tributed to wean this once loyal island from its attach- 
ment to the Spanish crown. 

The social life of San Juan, though foreign and Span- 
ish in its features, is delightful to one allowed to visit 
in the families; it is there that may be seen the true 
courtesy, the gentle breeding, of these descendants of 
the Old World hidalgos. One cannot fail to note the 
gracious beauty of the ladies of Puerto Rico ; they pos- 
sess all the features which make their Spanish sisters 
so famous, and have a languid grace all their own. 

From the living types of the present inhabitants to 
the ancient dwellers here, may seem a violent departure, 
and those in the flesh are certainly far more interesting ; 
but the aborigines have their claims, and I would not 
leave the island without a brief reference to them. 



402 



IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 




NATIVE HUTS AND DOVE COTES. 

( Island of Puerto Rico.) 

The aborigines of this island have left behind them 
some very unique antiquities. There are no others like 
them in the world, and they present most interesting 
subjects for study. In our national museum is the 
finest collection of these Indian relics, the gift some 
years ago of the late George Latimer, of San Juan. It 
has been described in a valuable pamphlet by Professor 



PUERTO RICO AND PONCE DE LEON. 403 

Mason, of the Smithsonian Institution, and it is a pos- 
session envied by all the museums in the world. There 
is now in the island a collection of these antiquities that 
may rival that in our museum, owned by a learned 
doctor residing at Bayamon, and I secured the promise 
of this collection for exhibition at Chicago. 

Without going into a description of the many unique 
specimens found in Puerto Rico, I may mention two, at 
least, that are peculiar to the island: these are a stone 
collar and a carved stone shaped like a pointed mount- 
ain. The collars have been found in great abundance,' 
and it was conjectured that they were made for war 
or sacrificial purposes. But the explanation given me 
by a Jesuit professor seems to me to be the correct one. 
He held that these stone collars, which are in shape 
like a horse-collar, and elaborately carved, were made 
by the Indians for use after death. Each Indian of im- 
portance, with no tools other than stone knives and 
chisels, would spend the greater part of a lifetime 
laboriously carving out this great stone, and when he 
died it was placed in the grave with him, resting upon 
his breast, to keep him in place forever, so that the 
Devil could not take him away. 

But the Indians have long since disappeared, and no 
one can tell us their motives in making these queer 
things ; the antiquarian can only indulge in blind guesses 
as to their uses. 

If one would gain knowledge of the common people 
he must go to the market, which is situated on the hill 
near the ocean skirt of the city. In the court, wnich is 
flagged with great stones, are rude booths containing 



404 



IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 




ALONG THE RTVEE. 



meat, vegetables and country produce of every sort. A 
little stall now and then had a parrot for sale, but 
most conspicuous of the fowl kind on exhibition, was 
the g-ame-cock, tied to the stool of its owner. Outside 
the court, in sheds, dozens of these game-cocks were 



PUERTO RICO AND PONCE DE LEON. 405 

scratching and crowing, each one confined by a little 
length of string. Asking some questions about them, 
I was shown a room in which there were from thirty 
to fifty, each one in a square open box, and every one 
crowing defiantly at the top of his lungs. Every cock 
had the feathers shaven from his back, and plucked 
from head, neck and tail. They were very pugnacious 
between themselves, but easily handled. One was 
shown me which had won a purse of one hundred dol- 
lars the Sunday before, and the average price for a 
good game-cock was from ten to twenty-five dollars. 

Expressing a desire to see the cock-pit, where the 
fights took place, a man conducted me to the Marina^ 
where I was shown a tumble-down shanty with corru- 
gated iron roof covering a circular inclosure some 
thirty feet in diameter. The floor was of hard earth 
inclosed within a fence three feet high, outside of 
which were seats placed around the arena, and num- 
bered. There is a cock-fight here every Sunday, and 
a great deal of money is lost and won. Outside the 
structure, on the sidewalk, were a number of cocks in a 
row, taking an airing, tied to pegs a few feet apart. The 
man in attendance took up every fowl in succession, 
and after filling his mouth with water squirted it in the 
eyes and under the wings of the bird, as a " refresher." 
In various parts of the city, these fighting-cocks may be 
seen every day, taking their airings on the sidewalks, 
strutting up and down to the length of their strings, and 
making the air resound with their crows of defiance. 

Beneath the walls of the Morro — the great fort that 
guards the harbor — the heavy surf comes tumbling in. 



406 



IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 



thundering at the cavernous cliffs, and roUing in great 
white-crested billows over the coral beds. For the 
perfection of sea views, comprising waves and breakers, 
one should go out to the windward side of San Juan, 

Permission was given me to visit the Morro. It is 
not unlike the fortress of the same name at Havana. 
Within its great walls is a small town by itself, with 




SENTKY BOX AND CEMETERY GATE AT SAN JUAN, 



chapel, houses and barracks, and there are deep dun- 
geons, covered ways and antiquated guns. A light- 
tower rises above the fort within the walls, equipped 
with a first-class light, and a signal station. 

Relics of the early days of Puerto Rico are not 
plentiful here, and although I persistently searched, I 
found few objects of interest. Perhaps the Indian 



PUERTO RICO AND PONCE DE LEON. 407 

relics lead in interest, but only to the antiquarian, 
while to the numismatist the old coins of the island 
are valuable. These are called the macuguina, and are 
clipped coins of Spain, generally of the last century, 
cut and counterstamped, in order to keep them in the 
island for local barter. They are now very scarce, and 
can only be found in the pawnshops and in the hands of 
private collectors. 

The most picturesque structure in San Juan de 
Puerto Rico, leaving out portions of the fortifications, 
is the building occupied to-day by the Royal Engineers, 
and known as the Casa Blanca. It is also the most 
valuable to the historian, for it was built and occupied 
by no less a personage than Juan Ponce de Leon, the 
Conquistador who, as has been said, was the first gov- 
ernor of this island, coming here in the year 1508. 

The Casa Blanca is protected toward the bay by a 
crenelated wall of ancient aspect, backed by a garden 
full of tropical plants, with a double row of cocoa- 
palms making it conspicuous. From the seaward 
looking windows and the garden, the view spread out 
below, of the bay and harbor, is most entrancing. 
Immediately beneath is the great gray wall of the line 
of defense, with its quaint old cannon, its projecting 
sentry turrets hanging precariously over the waves, 
and its massive battlements; beyond, is the blue- 
tinted water of the bay, the palm-fringed coast of 
the mainland; the low and jagged hills in ranks and 
rows, growing darker and mistier, till, merged in the 
clouds above and well-nigh piercing them rises majestic 
Yunque, the mountain with an Indian name. 



408 



IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 



The site lies midway between the palace and the 
Morro. In Ponce De Leon's time, doubtless, all the 
space was open, and the old Conquistador^ ensconced 
in his white castle, could sweep the surrounding sea 
clear to the horizon's brim. It was here, after the 
island was subjected, that he sat and planned the 




THE CASA BLANCA. 

{The ancient castle of Ponce de Leon the Conquistador.) 

voyage that made his name so famous. Looking out 
upon the northward-stretching ocean, he speculated 
upon the unseen wonders that lay beyond his sight, 
turning over in his mind the stories told him by his In- 
dian servants of the mysterious island to the north, in 
the Lucayan chain, that held in the bosom of its deep' 



PUERTO RICO AND PONCE DE LEON. 409 

forest the wonderful Fountain of Youth. So we may 
say that the voyage that resulted in the discovery of 
Florida and the upper Bahamas was planned in this- 
very Casa Blatica, the ancient castle of Ponce de Leon. 

It was in the year 15 12 that Ponce de Leon sailed 
out of the bay of Aguadilla for the discovery of Bimini,. 
where, the Indians of Puerto Rico told him, was to be 
found the Fountain of Eternal Youth. Sailing north- 
west he cruised the Bahama chain, and landed on Sam 
Salvador, or Guanahani, the first land discovered by 
Columbus. Leon was there just twenty years after the 
landing of the Admiral. Thence, sailing northwardly, 
he sighted a coast banked with flowers hanging from 
lofty trees; this he called Florida. He thought it art 
island, even after he had been named, by the king of 
Spain, Adelantado of Florida- and of Bimini. He did 
not stay here, but under the guidance of an old woman, 
whom he found on one of the keys, searched the chain 
for the famed Bimini, and finding it not returned dis- 
heartened to Puerto Rico; one of his officers following 
him with the tidings of its discovery. 

He received from the crown of Spain the elevated 
title of Adelantado of Bimini and Florida; but his at- 
tention was so drawn to affairs in the island of Puerto 
Rico that he paid no attention to his new provinces, 
until the great discoveries of Cortez, in Mexico, roused 
his dormant energies, and he again essayed a voyage to 
the northward. 

He had previously, in 15 15, made an expedition 
against the Caribs of the Southern islands, but was dis- 
astrously defeated, many of his soldiers were killed, and 



410 



IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 



he returned without booty to his own island. Here he 
staid as governor until 152 1, when he fitted out two 
ships and sailed for Florida. There he was attacked 
by the Indians, severely wounded, and retreated to 
Cuba, where he died. His body was brought to Puerto 
Rico and deposited beneath the altar of the Dominican 
church of San Juan, where it rested until 1863, when it 




THE LAST OF HIM WHO SOUGHT ETERNAL YOUTH. 

{Lead case containing the bones of Ponce de Leon.) 

was removed, the intention being to erect a monument 
to his memory, and place his ashes beneath it. This 
monument has not yet been erected, and the ashes still 
lie unsepultured. The lead case in which they are con- 
tained can be seen to-day, in the chapel attached to the 
church. Here I saw it, in 1892. It is about three feet 
long, bound with ribbons sealed with the municipal seal. 



PUERTO RICO AND PONCE DE LEON. 411 

The church itself, in which the ashes at present lie, is one 
of the oldest in San Juan, and in its decorations quite 
attractive. Here, then, is the last resting-place of one 
of the bravest of the conquistador es, the subjugator of 
Puerto Rico, discoverer of Florida, and the seeker for the 
Fountain of Youth. The inscription on his monument 
reads : ' ' This narrow grave contains the remains of a man 
who was a Lion by name, and much more by his deeds. " 

His deeds, indeed, live after him ; the island he dis- 
covered is still in possession of the descendants of the 
conquerors; but the people he found so peacefully 
dwelling here have long since passed away. 

Facing the western sea, looking out over the waving 
palms, the Casa Blanca recalls to us those great deeds 
of the lion-hearted Spaniard. There is no spot in San 
Juan more picturesque, and no outlook so attractive, 
especially at sunset. One memorable sunset I shall 
never forget. As the sun went down, the mountain, 
great and solitary Yunque, was left cold and green, with 
spirals of smoke circling around its crown from hidden 
valleys in its cool recesses. Its peak was left outlined 
against a clear and amber sky, though now and then 
obscured by smoke-colored clouds. After the sun had 
fairly set, banks of rose-colored clouds remained along 
the horizon, ascending in the east, even to the moon, 
which, "in full-orbed splendor," round and silver white, 
looked down upon the lonely island in the bay. In the 
west, flecking a sky so clear and hard that it seemed as 
if cut from an amethyst, lay fleecy lines of golden 
clouds. As though jealous of the splendors of the 
sun, that night the moon disported a lunar rainbow, 



412 



IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 



rivaling in beauty anything I have ever seen in the 
tropic sky. 

Thus I left the island of Puerto Rico ; the propeller 
again shook the steamer, and soon the calm waters of 
the sheltered bay gave place to the rougher waves, of 
the turbulent Caribbean Sea. 

The clouds faded out of the sky as the open sea was 
reached, and the breeze was so cool that I could easily 
imagine myself in Northern waters in the month of May. 
And those mountains might be Northern, too, for aught 
one might note to the contrary, were it not for their 
carpet of deepest green, and the border of palms that 
caresses their feet before they plunge into the sea. 



\ 




ARCHES OF SAN FRANCISCO COyVESJ. — SANTO DOMINGO CITl'. 



XX. 



AMONG THE SAINTS AND THE VIRGINS. 

LYING directly east of Puerto Rico is the Danish 
Island of St. Thomas ; near it is another, St. John's, 
and south of these lies Santa Cruz. 

All these Saints at present pertain to Denmark ; but 
north of them, and northwesterly, is a cluster of isles 
and islets belonging mostly to England, and known as 
the Virgins. Columbus named them all, as he came 
through this archipelago on his second voyage in 1493. 
The latter group he called after the lamented and re- 
vered Saint Ursula and her hapless eleven thousand 
virgins, so cruelly put to death by the Huns. Saints and 
Virgins, all, are now nearly as dead as the great and 
holy men and women after whom they were named; 
moribund, every one, and awaiting the touch of Ameri- 
can enterprise to revive them. 

All but Santa Cruz lie within the parallels 18° and 
19° north latitude; 64° and 65° west longitude, and are 
purely tropical in character and surroundings. The 
only port of call is that of St. Thomas, where the 
steamers of the " United States and Brazil Line " touch 
on their way to and from South America, The voyage 

413 



414 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

thither from the United States consumes five days fronx 
the port of Newport News, and six from New York. 
Leaving the Northern port with the decks covered with 
snow and ice, the second day the ice has disappeared ;: 
on the third one may wander about without wraps, and 
by the fifth, when the island desired is sighted, the 
mercury has climbed to 80°, where it persistently stays, 
all day, when allowed to remain in the shade. 

It may be night when the steamer arrives at the har- 
bor of St. Thomas, but the sweet land-breeze brings off 
the fragrance of a thousand flowers, and the strange, 
pungent odors of the terrene tropics, and you know 
that a new land is reached at last. New scenes await 
you, if it be your first trip to the tropics, and they can- 
not but interest and delight you. Arriving at the har- 
bor in the night, one might well imagine he had by 
mistake been brought to the borders of the infernal 
regions, for flaring flambeaux illumine the dark waters, 
dusky forms glide about with strange and discordant 
cries, yells and whistlings. A weird procession of black 
and hideous hags, clad in ragged raiment, bearing upon 
their heads great baskets, and shuffling clumsily up and 
down the gang-planks, has established connection with 
the shore, and is supplying the steamer with coal. It 
is merely an episode in the life of the voyager; but it is 
a matter of great importance to those wretched negresses, 
who get but a penny a basket for their toil, and who are 
always ready, by night and by day, to respond to the 
blast of the great horn blown by the contractor from 
the parapet of Blackbeard's castle, on the hill across the 
harbor. 



AMONG THE SAINTS AND THE VIRGINS. 



415 



As daylight comes, it is seen what a beautiful harbor 
is this of St. Thomas, worthy of all the adjectives 
one can heap upon it — magnificent, glorious, gem-like; 
it is everything except hurricane-proof. Hills on all 
sides surround it, save toward the southern sea, where 
the entrance lies between two high promontories guarded 




THE HARBOR FROM THE FORT. 



by ancient forts. Hills behind it, sun-burnt and bare, 
look down upon a charming town, itself built upon 
three elevations, and one of the most picturesque places 
in the Caribbean Sea. One rarely hears the name of 
this town, the port of St. Thomas, but it is called 
Charlotte Amalia, and is a good old-fashioned settle- 
ment, clean and pretty, with straight streets, good though 



416 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

decaying wharves, street and harbor lights, a fine police 
force, a stable government and most delightful situa- 
tion. There is not another just like it anywhere for 
comfort and convenience, and it fitly supplements the 
advantages of its royal harbor as a place of call, and 
even detention, for the naval vessels cruising in these 
seas. 

Almost entirely landlocked, the harbor of St. Thomas 
has room for two hundred vessels to lie at anchor; it 
contains a marine railway and a floating dock, and is the 
last resort of all the distressed vessels in this region. It 
has often been spoken of in connection with the establish- 
ing in the West Indies of a coaling station for the ves- 
sels of the United States navy. Two other points have 
claimed attention: Mole St. Nicolas, on the coast of 
Haiti, and Samana Bay in Santo Domingo. The first- 
named has some advantages not possessed by the others ; 
namely, contiguity to the great channel between Cuba, 
Haiti and Jamaica, and the consequent command of the 
traffic passing through, which will be immensely aug- 
mented after the construction of the Nicaragua Canal ; 
but it is in a barren and barbarous country, and there 
are many difficulties in the way of its acquisition, the 
most important being the aversion of the Haitiens to 
the alienation of any of their territory. 

Samana is farther east, but has almost equal value as 
a strategic position, has a magnificent harbor with deep 
water, and healthful situation. It can be more easily 
acquired than St. Nicolas, and there is little doubt that 
the whole peninsula could be purchased outright. 

St. Thomas, however, is not only available, without 



AMONG THE SAINTS AND THE VIRGINS. 417 

any danger of international complications, but it is 
«ager and anxious to come under the protection of the 
United States. For the acquisition of St. Thomas, it 
would only be necessary to appropriate a few million 
dollars, treat with Denmark in a frank, open manner, 
and the island (as well as Santa Cruz and St. John's) 
would become American property. Unfortunately, our 
Oovernment once treated with Denmark for this very 
possession; the treaty was not only ready for ratifica- 
tion, but the king of Denmark had taken farewell of his 
loyal subjects and virtually given up the island, when 
occurred one of those humiliating episodes that have 
more than once made America a byword in diplomatic 
circles. 

The treaty intention was ignored; the king of Den- 
mark had the humiliation of recalling his loyal but 
disappointed subjects, and the attitude of the home gov- 
ernment toward us cannot but be that of deep resent- 
ment. As it stands now, Denmark, though anxious to 
dispose of her West Indian possessions, cannot take the 
initiative, having been once insulted, and has every 
reason to view with distrust any proposition emanating 
from the Government of the United States, even should 
our legislators have the wisdom to move for their acqui- 
sition. Among the people of the islands themselves, 
there is a strong desire for annexation to the United 
States, for they realize that such union means renewed 
life and prosperity, in the place of the present death- 
in-life existence they are forced to lead. Even among 
the officials there is the same strong feeling in favor of 
the possession of the islands by our Government, for the 



418 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

higher officials would then he retired on pensions, and 
the soldiers would be relieved from dangerous and irk- 
some duty so far from home. At present the govern- 
ment is expensive, somewhat oppressive, and the annual 
deficit to Denmark rises from $50,000 to $100,000. For 
these reasons, the inhabitants of St. Thomas, St. John's 
and Santa Cruz would hail with joy any movement 
looking toward their becoming citizens entitled to the 
protection and benefits of the United States. They do 
not expect the rights of elective franchise, and would 
be content with a form of government somewhat like 
our territorial administration, desiring only to partici- 
pate in our prosperity. Such a government as we 
should give them would lessen their oppressive taxes, 
allow of greater freedom, and permit of their unlim- 
ited expansion; whereas they are now bound by the 
fetters of European domination. 

The society here in Charlotte Amalia is most enjoy- 
able, though the few members composing the elite are 
necessarily exclusive, and restrict the privileges to the 
Danish office-holders and leading merchants. But it is 
a quaint and enjoyable society one meets here, and if, 
perchance, the island ever should pass under the Ameri- 
can flag, it will be a long while before the social status 
will be adjusted on the prevailing harmonious basis and 
along the present lines. 

The island is thirteen miles long by three wide; de- 
serted plantations and barren fields cover the hills and 
line the shores, but there is no other settlement than 
Charlotte Amalia, with its population of some twelve or 
thirteen thousand. Most of the inhabitants are black or 



AMONG THE SAINTS AND THE VIRGINS. 



419 



colored, and the few whites live on the hills of the town. 
Government Hill is the center, and here are the best 
houses, though there are fine structures on and about 
the others. The only level street runs around the 
shore and out into the country, while the other thor- 




' ^,j3Unj;,:/:i:fj>_,^ 



OLD FORT AT ST. THOMAS. 

oughfares, aided by flights of stone steps, climb up and 
down the hills, that give such beautiful views over the 
harbor, and where the breezes always play. 

Although Danish is the official language, yet Eng- 
lish is universally spoken, even the officials using it; 
while reminders of what St. Thomas used to be when 
the ships of all nations came here, and trade was car- 
ried on with foreigners of every kind, are constantly 



420 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

met with in the linguistic attainments of all classes. 
Scarcely a trader or merchant here that cannot speak at 
least three or four tongues beside his own, and even 
the boys in the streets are polyglots. The old days, ~ 
when this island was the entrepot of all the others, 
when merchants sought it coming from Puerto Rico 
and Santo Domingo with their vessels ballasted with 
Mexican dollars to be exchanged for goods, and 
silver was often seen wheeled in barrows through the 
streets — those days have departed never to return. 
And yet, the fortunate position of St. Thomas in rela- 
tion to the easternmost West Indies and the South 
American ports has remained unchanged; only the 
methods of doing business have altered, and the in- 
creased number of steamers running to different ports, 
have taken from the island the importance of being 
a distributing center. 

As a valuable site for a coaling-station, however, 
commanding the Caribbean Sea and the approaches to 
the east coast of South America, it still possesses the 
great natural advantages with which the Creator origi- 
nally endowed it ; and wise will be the Government that 
takes advantage of the opportunity afforded for its 
acquisition. 

The only drawback to the purchase of the Danish 
islands is the fact that with St. Thomas must go the 
island of Santa Cruz, which, though rich and pictur- 
esque, with good roads, large plantations, and a popu- 
lation in need of nothing but money to make them 
prosperous, yet would not be a desirable possession. 
St. John's, though poor and comparatively uninhabited. 



AMONG THE SAINTS AND THE VIRGINS. 421 

has at least one good harbor in which large vessels can 
find shelter, and has an importance that for centuries 
has been overlooked. 

The history of St. Thomas, of its perils from the 
pirates of the sea, from the roving buccaneers and the 
adventurers of various nations, is written on its face. 
Upon the crests of two hills above the town stand two 
towers, called respectively "Bluebeard's" and "Black- 
beard's " castles. They may have once been occupied 
by those famous pirates, who certainly sailed the ad- 
joining seas, and tradition has it that vast treasure lies 
hidden underneath them ; but history states that they 
were built by the Government, about the year 1700. 
Perhaps the finest view of the harbor and the island 
is to be obtained from the castle known as " Black- 
beard's," the property of Mr. Edward Moron, whose 
house, adjacent, is the abode of a generous hospitality. 

It was my desire, of course, to obtain the co-operation 
of the Government in the Exposition, and to this end 
the American Consul, genial Colonel Home, presented 
me to the Governor, General Arendrup. I found His 
Excellency a pleasant and shrewd gentleman, with the 
Danish desire for thrift, who listened with evident in- 
terest to the statement of my case; but who was 
opposed to the granting by his Government of any ap- 
propriation for the display of the resources of the 
islands. Although drawing a princely salary himself, 
and having many officials under him magnificently 
reimbursed for their absence from home comforts, he 
yet professed to see no way by which even a few 
thousand dollars could be raised for an exhibit at 



422 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

Chicago. Finally, being convinced of the niggardliness 
of the Government, and the total lack of concern for the 
welfare of the colony, I appealed with some success to 
the merchants of the town. It was true, as the Gov- 
ernor urged, that the island had little to send, having 
few native products, and no industries. But, knowing 
the desire of the people to make known the advantages 
of their island as a winter resort, and its desirability as a 
coaling-station, I recommended that a large model, or 
relief-map, be prepared, showing the glorious harbor, 
the surrounding hills, the town, the tropical vegetation — 
in a word, a small exposition of the island visible at a 
glance, that should convey to the world at large an ade- 
quate picture of its beauty and advantages. This idea 
was applauded, and several of the merchants promised 
the necessary funds for the purpose. It was next neces- 
sary to secure the talent for producing the map : a difficult 
thing in a community where there is no uplifting public 
sentiment and example for the encouragement of art or 
literature. 

Fortunately, there was one in whom the divine spark 
of genius was glowing with fervor, whose life had 
fitted him for the very work I had projected, and 
whose patriotism was equal to the demands about to be 
made upon it. Dr. C. E. Taylor, though an English- 
man by birth, and a Dane by adoption, who had the 
only bookstore in St. Thomas, and who was a member 
of the General Council, came to my assistance. He 
volunteered to reproduce the harbor, drawn to a scale, 
and in such a shape as to be attractive to the general 
observer as well as valuable to the scientist. With the 



AMONG THE SAINTS AND THE VIRGINS. 423 

assistance of his son, a boy of sixteen, but who had 
already given proof of artistic ability, he set to work, 
and after six months of hard labor, in the intervals of 
his business, he produced a relief model of the hills and 
harbor that will challenge the criticism of the world. 
Thus, without the aid of the impecunious Government, 
and by the unassisted effort of native talent, my friend 
has evoked a work that will comprehensively show the 
many and varied attractions of the island at a glance. 

Dr. Taylor, as I have indicated, is a genius, having 
turned his hand to many things, during his varied and 
checkered career, and having accomplished things that 
would have discouraged any one of less heroic mold. 

If one will climb the hill behind to its crest, he will 
have before him, and in fact all around him, such a 
panorama of sea and water views as is opened out to 
one very seldom in a lifetime. The whole island is in 
sight — a perfect gem; its facets almost gleaming be- 
neath the intense light of the tropical sun. Brown and 
bare as it is, yet the island has a beauty of an appealing 
sort, and one delights in the visions of the others oc the 
Virgin group, rising at varying distances from this, out 
of the sapphire sea. Santa Cruz is forty miles away, 
and cloud-like on the horizon; nearer by is St. John's; 
beyond are Tortola and Virgin Gorda, all islands that 
have played no inconspicuous parts in the world's his- 
tory, yet now neglected and alone, lying there lifeless on 
the bosom of the shining sea, wrapped in the memories 
of the past. 

I went to St. John's one day, and there revisited the 
scenes of some old hunting excursions made in 1880, 



424 



IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 



when I was investigating the bird-hfe of these islands. 
It is a beautiful island, covered all over with fragrant 
bay and spice-trees, with countless beaches of snow- 
white sand, and with every requisite that nature can 
furnish for a free, wild life ; yet this island is now well- 
nigh abandoned. My friends of twelve years before 
had departed, and, except the police justice and local 
magistrate, there is scarcely a white inhabitant on the 




BUCCANEER CANNON. — ST. JOHN'S. 



island. In the scant woods are beautiful birds, and in 
the ravines I used to find wild pigeons and doves. Over 
on the windward side is a secluded bay, where the an- 
cient Caribs lived, before the white men came here, and 
who left evidences of their one-time residence in rude 
carvings on the rocks; such as the figures of men, a 
rudely incised cross, and strange characters. 

Scattered about the island are old cannon, relics of 



AMONG THE SAINTS AND THE VIRGINS. 425 

the buccaneer times, when the landlocked and hidden 
bays gave them shelter from French and Spanish 
cruisers. Over in the forsaken island of Tortola I 
found two small cannon that once belonged to the 
pirates, and sent them to the Exposition. In this 
latter island are but two white inhabitants, the Gov- 
ernor and the doctor, and the only cultivation of any 
importance is the recently undertaken industry of rais- 
ing the Sisal hemp. Tortola once had a peculiar coin- 
age of its own, created by stamping the coins of other 
countries with its signature, a rude counterstamp that 
makes a very effective and distinctive mark. These 
coins are now scarce, but I secured a few, notwith- 
standing that the Governor had made a "corner" in 
the market, and it is over a hundred years since they 
were produced. 

There comes an end to all things, and even a sea 
voyage is no exception; but when you are cruising 
among islands, one sea voyage only begets another; 
your steamer leaves the waves of the turbulent Atlantic 
only to disturb the bosom of the Caribbean Sea. 

I sailed into St. Thomas only to sail out again, after 
a short stay. But I made the most of my opportuni- 
ties, and learned the many good points of this island. 
I found out the cool and sandy beaches for my early 
morning bath, where I could disport myself unmolested 
beneath the cocoanut-trees. I found the best points of 
view on the hill-summits, and I soon ascertained that a 
pleasant stroll of an afternoon was out toward the tennis 
grounds between the hour of five and the cool interval 
just preceding dusk and dinner. 



XXI. 

AN ISI-AND QUITE OUT OF THE WORLD. 

SABA, the northernmost sentinel of the volcanic 
islands composing the Caribbean chain, lay right 
abeam at last. The sloop that had brought me thus far 
from St. Thomas was to continue on to St. Kitt's, but 
the captain had promised to drop me at Saba, as he 
passed. Preparations were hastily inade ; the boat was 
swung over the side, my luggage stowed in it, and this, 
with the three men at the oars, filled it to overflowing. 

By that time it was dark, though a silver semblance 
of a moon had caught enough of the sun's reflections to 
light us dimly on our way. The great billows heaved 
me up and down, the wind blew fitfully from out the 
gorges that split the mountain-island, and a sea-bird 
shrieked shrilly as it flew by on its way to land. Black 
and frowning walls rose straight up ahead of us, with a 
narrow rim of bowlders at their base over which the sea 
dashed in great black waves. Nearly a thousand feet 
above us a light gleamed from a hut, but beneath all 
was darkness, for not a soul lived below the cliffs. 

It was impossible to run the boat through the billows 
unaided ; for all the fishermen had retired to the hills 

426 



1 



AN ISLAND QUITE OUT OF THE WORLD. 427 

to sleep, so my crew lay upon their oars and sent their 
voices out into the darkness. "Come down! Come 
down! Come down ! " they shouted. No one replied. 
The waves alone sent back a hoarse refrain, and a night 
heron, fishing among the rocks, answered with derisive 
croaks as he flapped his heavy wings and sped away. 
Each man tried his best, and then all united in one 
great and prolonged shout. Hark! Was that merely 
the echo of the last effort ? We repeated the cry, and 
immediately there followed a faint response — faint and 
hoarse, but most unmistakably a reply. 

For nearly half an hour longer we lay there on our 
oars, listening to the waves, and to the signs of life and 
approaching deliverance, manifested in the showers of 
gravel and stones rattling down the cliffs, disturbed by 
those who had answered our hail. By this time the 
moon had followed the sun in his descent, and had 
buried herself in the same watery grave, sharing with 
him the embraces of the ocean. And when the moon 
retires she leaves no light this side the curtain of night, 
save that of the stars. These were all out to keep their 
vigil: stars of the North and stars of the South — Orion 
and the Southern Cross; yet their united gleams were 
not more than sufficient to show us the figures of two 
human beings, indistinct as ghosts yet black as demons, 
awaiting us in the surf. 

' ' Come in, now. Steady ! Out with you, quick ! 
Run to the bow, sir. Jump, jump! don't wait! Here!" 
All this was uttered in a breath by the waiting negroes 
on the rocks, as we turned our boat head on, and shot 
with terrific speed upon the shore. 



428 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

In an instant the waves were foaming round us as the 
boat touched the stones and rested a second, quivering ; 
another, and strong hands had seized her, strong arms 
lifted and guided her in, as the next wave hurled 
her on. 

I leaped to the bow, as directed, scrambled over guns 
and trunks, and a mighty wave came rolling in just as I 
started, the crest of it striking me sharply on the back, 
and assisting me so well that I landed high on the rocks 
without other help. But at the same time it deluged 
my goods, and this promised to be of more serious mo- 
ment than the injury to my person. In a twinkling, 
those stalwart blacks unloaded the boat, and carried my 
things beyond the reach of the sea; in five minutes or 
so the boat was back on the breast of a wave, and I was 
left alone with two strange black men, whose faces, 
even, I had never seen. 

Then, in the darkness, with the wind and waves roar- 
ing in my ears, I began to realize the situation I was in, 
the exigencies of which had prevented me from ade- 
quately comprehending it. 

During the past two days I had eaten but one meal, 
of sea-soaked biscuit; I was so weak I could hardly 
stand, now that the excitement of the landing had 
passed; hence, I was not in the most favorable con- 
dition for climbing to the top of the precipice, where 
alone I could find shelter and a bed. In fact, in my 
weakness, I preferred to sleep on the rocks till morning ; 
but the urgent appeals of the negroes finally induced 
me to change my mind and try the ascent. 

This island of Saba owes its reputation chiefly to the 



I 



AN ISLAND QUITE OUT OF THE WORLD. 429 

difficulty of reaching- it. It has no harbor, no roadstead, 
even, and no landing-place that in any civilized country 
would be dignified with that name. The people who 
inhabit this half-submerged mountain take their lives 
in their hands oftener, I presume, than those of any 
other island in these seas. They dare the sirens of the 
sea, tempt fate, and run the risk of a watery grave, 
nearly every time they leave or return to their island 
home. There are but two points at the base of this 
mountain at which a boat can land: one is called the 
Fort, used only when the wind is well to the north and 
west; the other, at which I had landed, is known as the 
Ladder; this, though worse than the other, is oftenest 
used, as it is sheltered from the prevailing wind. 

I had heard fearful stories about this Ladder. It 
was said to be so steep that only the natives could 
climb it; that all visitors had to be carried up on their 
backs ; that the ascent could only be accomplished by 
the aid of ropes, and that some even required to be 
pulled up in a basket. These stories vaguely flitted 
through my brain as I thought of the terrible ascent 
before me, in my exhausted state ; and it was with some 
trepidation that I committed myself to the guidance of 
one of the men, and set my face skyward. 

I will not detail the events of that dreadful climb. 
It was one continued, laborious effort for nearly an 
hour, up an incline so steep that the roof of an ordinary 
house would have been easy walking in comparison. 
The stones loosened by my feet fell straight down to 
the beach ; and this sort of climbing continued to the 
bitter end, the trail zigzagging and doubling upon 



430 



IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 



itself, beneath impending rocks seemingly all ready to 
fall, and along the brink of precipices which I after- 
ward saw by daylight only to shudder at. After a 
perpendicular lift of over seven hundred feet, I felt like 
rolling over the cliffs, and long before the top was 

reached I could have 
wished old Saba sunk 
in the sea. The dark- 
ness was dense, but the 
steady hand of my 
guide prevented me 
from slipping, and at 
last we reached a point 
whence the narrow 
path wound among the 
rocks at an easy grade. 
At the first house we 
passed a large crowd 
had congregated to 
learn the news. My 
guide comraitted me to 
a boy in the crowd, 
and returned to the 
seaside. This boy led 
me to the house of the harbor-master of this port 
without a harbor, and he, after a long catechising as 
to my business, my intentions and my respectability, 
permitted me to remain and to sleep on the floor. 
Previous to retiring I walked out with my host into the 
little garden, and in doing so stumbled over a long, 
low, white object, which proved by daylight to be a tomb 




THE LADDER. 



AN ISLAND QUITE OUT OF THE WORLD. 431 

of mason work, covering a shallow grave. This custom 
of interring their dead in their gardens is a touching 
proof of affection, in a place where soil is so scarce, and 
garden-space so valuable. For I am sure if all the 
people of Saba should die at one time, there would not 
be enough soil to bury them in. It may be considered 
fortunate that the majority of the inhabitants are sea- 
faring men, and die away from home. 

In the morning I went out for a walk, and was sur- 
prised to see, directly in front of me, a very steep 
hill; east of it another, and to the west another. In 
truth, this little town of "Bottom" is completely sur- 
rounded by hills, with one opening to the east and one 
to the west, through which only the inhabitants reach 
the ocean. It is eight hundred and sixty feet above the 
sea, and occupies the leveled surface of a vast mass of 
debris that ages since filled the crater of an extinct vol- 
cano. I do not know how many houses there are, but 
there are not many. Each one is painted white, with 
low, red roof, and each is in the center of a diminutive 
garden filled with rocks. The streets are merely nar- 
row foot-paths, walled in between great piles of rocks 
and stones, so that in many places the walls o'er-topped 
my head. A profusion of cactus, vines and prickly- 
pears covered these walls, among which, and across 
these most devious lanes, darted tiny gilt-capped hum- 
ming-birds, yellow-breasts and sparrows, playing at 
hide-and-seek. 

The captain and myself (all old men are captains 
here) walked out in the cool of the morning. We went 
down one lane and up another, around one corner and 



432 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

then another, but never in a straight line, nor ever over 
a level path, until we came to a neat little cottage, with 
its front yard filled with limes, crotons and trumpet 
flowers, and along its flagged entrance were wooden 
benches, most inviting to sit upon. A meek and mel- 
ancholy woman bade us enter, and with her the captain 
quickly arranged for my board. Then he went with me 
to visit the Governor, who was a Dutchman, but spoke 
English. He received us kindly, and speedily granted 
me permission to hunt in the island, waiving the cus- 
tomary payment of two guilders for such a privilege. 
The good man thereupon retired to his private room, 
after a little while returning and handing me a paper 
that would, he said, be my protection from the police, 
who, four in number, ranged the island, seeking what 
they might devour. 

It was a passport; it was in Dutch, and it sufficed. 

I lived for ten days in this quaint little town, in the 
bed of the crater, nine hundred feet above the sea. 
From its elevation the heat is never very oppressive, 
though a walk from the landing to the top, with the sun 
pegging away at your back, is likely to create a contrary 
impression. But the thermometer maintains a steady 
pace, from about seventy degrees at night to eighty at 
noon, and it was rather monotonous writing down the 
record, one day was so like another. 

One cannot walk in any direction without going up or 
down hill, hence the numerous ladies of Saba rarely 
take exercise. There are some even who have never 
left their crater home, or ever been to the seaside. For 
them a voiage to St. Kitt's, some forty miles away, is a 




^ S3 




/feil.K.--^ . .A 



AN ISLAND QUITE OUT OF THE WORLD. 435 

great event ; though their husbands, fathers and brothers 
voyage to every part of the navigable globe. Such love 
have these sailors for their sea-girt home that they return 
to it whenever opportunity offers, and after they have 
earned a competency rarely take up their residence any- 
where else. The white people of Saba are in greater 
number proportionally to the blacks than in any other 
island of the West Indies. They all have fair skins 
and rosy complexions, with some freckles, but with little 
tan, while there is a predominance of tow-heads among 
the juvenile population. White boys, with flaxen hair, 
pug noses, wide mouths and sky-blue eyes, showing 
their Dutch origin, mingled freely with the blacks, all 
on terms of perfect equality. With them also were 
those of other complexions : brown, yellow and choco- 
late ; these form the connecting links between the two 
races, and are by far the most insolent and haughty in 
their bearing. 

Notwithstanding all its difficulties of access and its 
isolation, this island possesses, with its cool climate, its 
tropical fruits growing in a temperate atmosphere, and 
its pretty maidens, with clear complexions and flaxen 
hair, so many attractions for the Saba sailor, that he 
never elsewhere finds a land he likes so well, and ever 
returns to it at the end of his voyages. 

I made the ascent of the peak of Saba the first day 
that it was free from the fog- clouds that poured over 
and en wreathed it from the Atlantic. With its grand 
sweep from peak to ocean, the brown rock-ribbed hills 
that rose higher and higher, the great gorges that ex- 
tended from its lateral ridges down to the broadening 



436 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

ravines, and, finally, its perpetually- verdant coronet of 
tree-ferns, mountain palms, and all the moisture-loving 
plants that inhabit this tropical border land, it was a 
picture for an artist to view. 

At daylight it rained ; it was cold, and the fog swept 
over the ridges in volumes of mist that obscured the 
trail. We passed from the town underneath jutting 
cliffs, crossing a narrow ridge and entering a little val- 
ley where the fertile washings from the cone had accu- 
mulated in pockets in and among the great volcanic 
rocks that had been shot down, or upheaved, ages ago. 
If one should need a lesson in the economy of soil, he 
would find it here, where every available foot was culti- 
vated. The little vale was apportioned into diminutive 
gardens, by walls of stones gathered from the surface ; 
even the path through which we walked was walled in, 
leaving a walk like a ditch, between high embankments, 
covered with a host of beautiful plants, growing wild. 
It was a pleasure to walk there, not only to view the 
varying flora, but to contemplate the primitive simplicity 
in which man here lived and carried on the cultivation 
of the earth. These people, thought I, are to be envied, 
for they are in perpetual possession of the pleasures of 
childhood — these small gardens being scarcely more 
than the little spots tilled by children in other lands, 
and to which man in his memory continually reverts as 
to a time when he owned the riches of the earth. Here 
in this valley, hemmed in by hills and in a measure pro- 
tected from hurricanes, are raised the principal vege- 
tables used in the island, and shipped to St. Thomas. 
The great elevation of more than fifteen hundred feet 



■W'' 




















f^'K?^^?:'*^*. 



AN ISLAND QUITE OUT OF THE WORLD. 48'J 

above the sea, with its consequent coolness and moisture, 
gives it a climate equal to that of a remove of twenty 
degrees farther to the northward, where potatoes (which 
cannot be raised below), cabbages, corn, and even straw- 
berries, may grow in perfection. 

Inquiring about a trail to the mountain-top, we were 
promptly assured that there was none, and that nobody 
knew the way to the summit. This I regarded as an 
encouraging reply, because the very ignorance in re- 
spect to the high forest argued no end of possibilities in 
the matter of new birds and plants, so dear to the heart 
of a naturalist. Leaving the last house, we ascended 
through the ever-deepening gloom of fog, through gar- 
dens fertile as those below, and again across ravines 
choked with wonders of tropic growth, and through 
gullies thick with wild bananas and plantains, that 
could be traced in lines up the mountain side. Everj^ 
available inch was planted, clear to the forest, and even 
the pocket of earth caught in the hollow of a rock dis- 
played its broad caladium leaf, or gave root to the vine 
of the sweet potato, with its flower like that of a morn- 
ing-glory. From an inclosure here and there, a cow 
looked out, or a calf, sleek and well-fed, from eating 
the wild grass and leaves of the plantain and trumpet- 
tree. 

Climbing a steep slope, we entered a wilderness — not 
a parched and barren one, but a wilderness of plants. 
Words of mine cannot describe the scene that the 
partially-lifted veil of fog disclosed to me. It was a 
view that repaid all the exertion, that checked my mur- 
murs at the unpropitious weather, and drew from me 



440 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

exclamations of wonder and joy. I had been somewhat 
prepared by the sight of occasional clumps of tree-ferns 
and picturesque masses of broad-leaved "China" plants, 
for an exhibition of something beautiful, but had not 
thought it possible to find grouped together such a 
variety of ferns and mosses, air-plants, begonias and 
arums. 

Here the tree-ferns, which could be seen from town, 
forming a long line against the sky, with their grace- 
ful groups delicately outlined, or massed together in 
the gorges, in undistinguishable greens, rose above and 
around us. The tree-fern is one of the few plants that 
preserves its beauty everywhere and tmder all condi- 
tions, at all distances. There is, in my opinion, hardly 
anything so lovely in nature, that is not dependent solely 
upon color for effect, as the tree-fern. It has an ex- 
quisite delicacy of form and airy tracery of filminess in 
those glorious fronds that are spread between one and 
the sky; the supporting stems possess such graceful 
curves, bending apparently to the breezes, yet ever 
bearing their fretted crowns securely aloft. They give 
one only the perfect outline of their stems, at times, 
and again are clothed from head to foot in a wealth of 
air-plants that add, if possible, beauty to beauty, yet 
always retaining the best attainable pose, full of ex- 
pression and animation. 

I hastened on, up through the deepening forest. 
Every tree and vine was dripping great drops ; my legs, 
despite their canvas leggings, were soaked, and my hat 
of papyrus pith, made only for fair weather and the sun, 
was soon soggy, and drooped about my ears. We halted 



AN ISLAND QUITE OUT OF THE WORLD. 441 

for a bit in a little opening where the mountain palms 
formed a perfect canopy above us, and then I was first 
made aware of the absence of one of our number, a col- 
ored man, who had joined himself to me the first day of 
my arrival, and had followed in the rear of every excur- 
sion since. He had an unpronounceable name, but as it 
sounded somewhat like that of the great French natural- 
ist, I called him Cuvier. Cuvier, then, was absent, and 
though we shouted, and disturbed the leafy sanctuary 
to the extent of our lungs, yet no response came to our 
cries. It may as well be remarked that Cuvier was not 
lost, for it later developed that he had descended a 
more facile path to the ravine, in search of snails, rather 
than climb the rugged cliff to the top of the mountain. 

Then the real labor began; the guide went ahead and 
slashed with his cutlass a narrow path, while I broke 
down with my broad, hobnailed shoes such bushes and 
limbs as were left. Progressing painfully and slowly, 
we passed through such collections of orchids as would 
have driven a botanist wild, and through such effects 
of leaf and vine and flower as made me despair of 
adequately depicting them to my friends, and caused 
me to sigh for sunshine and my camera; in fact, I re- 
solved to return and enrich myself with negatives of 
this glorious vegetation. 

Finally we saw a glimpse of light ahead — a little 
speck of fog-covered sky, through the tops of the palm- 
trees — and pushed for it. There was more cutting 
and slashing, more neck-deep plunges into pitfalls cov- 
ered with wet and slippery broad-leaved plants, and 
frantic scramblings over quaking beds of orchideous 



442 



IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 




CACAO FRUIT. 



vegetation, then, mounting upon a great rock, we looked 
down the mountain side. We reached the peak, as 
the roar of the windward surf informed us, but it was 
in vain that I sought to penetrate and look beyond 
the billows of fog that surged against the mountain 
side, condensing now and then into vapor. Below and 
immediately about us, we looked upon a level-topped 

sea of verdure, spread 
over the cone like a 
wonderfully -tapes- 
tried carpet, embossed 
with the fronds of 
magnificent palms, 
the laced witchery 
of tree - fern leaves, 
brown rocks and the 
broad leaves of wild plantains. The great mountain 
swept up from below in waving lines, drawn to a focus 
at the point on which we stood. 

What an added value would this achievement have 
possessed, had the day been clear and the islands in 
sight that gem these northern waters of the Caribbean ! 
From occasional views at lower elevations, I knew what 
I should have seen: east of me lay St. Bart's, with 
St. Martin's and Anguilla forming an isolated group of 
islands, and lying between the Virgins and St. Eustatius. 
The latter island was right beneath me, and not far from 
St. Kitt's, which in turn nearly joins the cone of Nevis, 
and this, again, backed by the purple clouds of Montser- 
rat, though eighty miles to the south ; while away north 
might be descried, perhaps, St. Thomas and Santa Cruz. 



AN ISLAND QUITE OUT OF THE WORLD. 443 

From all appearances, we were the first, at least for 
years, to visit this spot, for there were no traces of a 
trail, no scarred trees, no limbs broken by the hand of 
man; all was in the primitive state that might have 
existed since the first throes of the volcano. Soon a 
tremendous burst of wind and rain drove us to the 
shelter of the palms, and, as there was no promise of a 
clearer view that day, we reluctantly began the descent. 
Emerging from the wood of mountain palms, we reached 
at last the upper "provision grounds " of a deep ravine 
called "Martinique Gut," where the dwarf bananas 
struggled with decaying trees and picturesque parasites. 

The most conspicuous tree here was a great "trum- 
pet, " clothed from root to crown in an immense envelope 
of vines, forming a whole 
forest by itself, with its 
attendant vines, air-plants 
and parasites. Among its 
branches were humming- 
birds, thrushes and "trem- 
bleurs," that came down to 
earth at my call; some of bread-feuit. 

them now form specimens 

in the Government museum, at Washington. I here 
determined the limit, or northern range, of the beauti- 
ful garnet-throated humming-bird, and on another day 
I hunted down a curious bird called the "Wedrigo, " 
which I think is identical with the Jablotin, or Devil 
Bird, of the islands to the south. 

As we descended the ridge leading to the hamlet, we 
met a long line of negroes climbing the hill, bearing 




444 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 



I 



upon their heads the cargo of a sloop that had just 
arrived. Everything from abroad comes up to the vil- 
lage on the heads of the people. Each man carried a 
hundred pounds on his head, climbing the steep cliffs 
easily, and taking his load to the farthest hamlet, a 
distance of three miles, and with a perpendicular ascent 
of one thousand three hundred feet. A barrel of flour 
is divided, one half put into a sack, and thus carried 
from beach to village. 

One day I went in search of the famous sulphur 
mine, on the windward side of the island, wending my 
way eastward and northward, always climbing up or 
scrambling down, around angles in the path that revealed 
the grandest of sea views, skirting precipices that rose- 
above and descended far beneath us, until I reached a. 
deep and narrow gorge. 

Here was the gateway to the sulphur mine and the 
entrance to Inferno. Impressed upon the rock was the 
shape of an immense hand, which the natives declare is. 
the Devil's hoof, and, near by, they show the "Devil's; 
heating-iron " — a smooth, flat stone that is always hot,, 
no matter how wet the weather or how hard the rain. 

Descending by a well-worn footpath — there are no* 
horses or other large quadrupeds on the island — we 
came to the door of a small two-roomed building, strong 
and new. The owner was absent in the mine, but our 
little colored guide descended to notify him of the arrival 
of strangers, and in an hour or so he came up. As I 
sat there looking out over the sea to the island of St. 
Eustatius, dim in the east, and gazing up at the peak 
of the volcano that reared its cleft summit directly 



AN ISLAND QUITE OUT OF THE WORLD. 445 

above me, and the time slipped by, I wondered why the 
proprietor was so long in coming; but when, later, I 
went over the same ground he had traversed, I won- 
dered why he had come at all. 

Cornwall Henwood, part owner and principal worker 
of the sulphur mine of Saba, was a man of about forty^ 
robust and handsome, who had spent some twenty years 
in and about the West Indies. Educated as a miner, 
he had prospected in nearly every island of the chain, 
for precious metals and phosphates, and at last his years 
of toil seemed about to be rewarded, in this apparently 
exhaustless deposit of sulphur. "I will show you," he 
said, ' ' the only mine of pure, cool sulphur in the Eastern 
hemisphere; the only one of any extent outside Sicily." 

Then he led the way down the hill toward the sea, 
and we walked and walked, all the way down hill, 
until it really seemed as though we should eventually 
reach the nether region just mentioned. High above 
us, the everlasting cliffs were seamed with great veins 
of sulphur, and even down below, where they were 
lapped by the waves of the Atlantic. At this place a 
derrick had been erected, and a wire rope ran down 
from it to the sea, six hundred feet below. Down this 
rude tram the sulphur was shot in buckets to a plat- 
form, whence it was taken in boats to a vessel in wait- 
ing near the shore. Owing to the purity of the crude 
sulphur, as it is blasted from the face of the perpendic- 
ular clift's, and the facility with which it can be dumped 
from, the mine to a vessel below, it was found more 
profitable to ship direct than to refine on the spot,, 
though works had been erected for that purpose. 



446 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

Mr. Hen wood explained to me the dip and breadth 
of the veins of sulphur, and invited me to inspect a 
tunnel he had begun at a lower level. It was then 
twelve o'clock, the sun was attending strictly to busi- 
ness, and the latitude of the place was only eighteen 
degrees north of the equator. We had already de- 
scended some five hundred feet, and the tunnel was 
four hundred feet farther, so at first I hesitated, but 
finally we went down. We crept along ledges that 
seemed scarcely wider than picture-moldings, and down 
a path which no sane person in the world, if fore- 
warned, would have attempted to descend. But we 
safely reached the bottom, about two hundred feet 
above the beach, and there found several black men 
w^orking, under the direction of a fine-looking white 
man, laboring at pick and shovel with a will that would 
have been creditable in a more northern clime. The 
sun beat down with tremendous force, and the ther- 
mometer must have been at the boiling-point. We ex- 
amined the indications, saw the wisdom of Kenwood's 
reasonings, and agreed with him that the sulphur must 
lead to the very center of the volcano. 

The less said about the ascent the better. In going 
up I learned a lesson from this veteran climber of 
West Indian mountains. He made almost a full stop 
after every step, and by this leisurely mode of progres- 
sion we reached the summit without great fatigue. 

The history of the Saba sulphur mines is short, but 
eventful. When the mineral was first discovered no one 
knows, but the first specimens were taken to America 
many years ago. 



1 



AN ISLAND QUITE OUT OF THE WORLD. 447 

I wish I could put on record a successful issue to 
these herculean efforts of the indomitable Cornishman; 
but the labors of Mr. Henwood never received their 
reward. Going to New York, shortly after the time of 
my visit, in order to interest capitalists in his venture, 
this generous and talented man was murdered, in a 
hotel. His death brought disaster to the enterprise, 
and I am not aware that it was ever resumed ; for few 
men could be found of the courage and ability necessary 
to success. 




ST. PATRICK'S ROCK, SABA. 



XXII. 

THE SECOND VOYAGE TO THE NEW WORLD. 

THE islands discovered by Columbus in his second 
voyage to the New World, lie mainly in the 
Caribbee chain, which sweeps around from Puerto Rico 
eastward and southward, between the Greater Antilles 
and the north coast of South America. 

Every island is a gem ; nearly every one is a mount- 
ain clothed in green, thrust up from the depths of the 
sea, with white strand encircling it, blue waves embrac- 
ing it, and silvery clouds caressing it. 

Sailing from the Dutch island of St. Eustatius, where, 
in November, 1776, the stars and stripes were first 
saluted by a foreign power, a few hours took me to 
the north end of St. Kitt's — as the English now call 
that island Columbus named St. Christopher. This isl- 
and, with its great central peak astride the lower hills, 
reminded him, perhaps, of the good giant, St. Christo- 
pher, who bore the infant Christ upon his shoulders, and 
from which, it is said, his good mother took the future 
admiral's own name. At all events, he had this legend 
in mind when he so named it: and, as I drew near the 
beautiful island, and saw its grim old mountain rising 

448 



THE SECOND VOYAGE TO THE NEW WORLD. 



449 



above its supporting- hills and furrowed slopes, I was 
struck with its beauty, if not impressed with its re- 
semblance to the historic saint. 

Mount Misery is the highest peak in the island; and 
near its center it has a crater in its bosom, and a silver 
wreath of clouds at all times plays around its head. 
Seen a little ways out at sea, the whole island lies 
before you : the dark mountain masses towering above 
the broad-breasted hills, with deep ravines running down 
to the spaces cultivated in sugar-cane, which are of a 
lighter green, and opening- upon the sea. The estate 
houses are scat- --_--;-- •- 

teredhere and . ^^--.---.-_i--- — 

there, some of 
them surrounded 
with palms, and 
all with groves of 
cocoas ; near them 
are the " works," 
where the cane 
is converted into 

sugar, their tall chimneys rising high into the air. The 
belt of cane land is broad and far-reaching; it sur- 
rounds the island entirely; extends from the sea as far 
up the mountains as possible, while above stretch the 
pasture-lands and the "provision grounds" of the la- 
borers. These latter, where the common people raise 
all their provisions, such as taniers, sweet potatoes, yams, 
bananas, etc., and which they cultivate onl}^ on one or 
two days in the week, are a long- ways from their dwel- 
lings. They build here little watch houses, to which 




THE ISLAND OF ST. EUSTATIUS, SEEN FROM 
ST. KITT's. 



450 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

they retire in the heat of noon to eat their frugal meals, 
or when the rain falls heavily. On no account, how- 
ever, would they sleep there at night, for they are 
afraid of the evil spirits, known to the black man as. 
"jumbies, " which lose no opportunity to do harm to 
the black man who may be caught in the mountains- 
after dark. 

In St. Kitt's are some of the most hospitable people 
in the world; they are mostly descendants of the old 
planters who have owned property here ever since the 
buccaneer period, when the Spaniards drove away the 
first piratical settlers. Like Barbadoes,that other loyal 
island away to the south, St. Kitt's has been in English 
hands so long that there is a stability and thriftiness 
about the population most refreshing to note. I recall 
a visit made here some years ago, when the planters 
seemed to vie with one another to do my pleasure, each 
one entertaining me at his house, and passing me en- 
tirely around the island, from one beautiful estate to 
the other, until I had made the complete circuit, con- 
suming several weeks in making the journey. There 
is a road around the island, some forty miles in length,, 
broad, smooth and macadamized, which opens up to the 
traveler glorious views of estates, mountains, sea, and 
distant isles half-hidden in cloud. 

If I were to descend to details, and attempt to de- 
scribe the island of St. Kitt's, I should, of course, begin 
with its capital and only town of importance, Basse 
Terre, which shows in its name the trace of French 
occupancy, centuries back. But you must look to the 
guide-books for that; my dealings are with the people^ 



THE SECOND VOYAGE TO THE NEW WORLD. 451 

and also with things remote from the active life of 
to-day. 

Basse Terre is a pretty enough town, with a fine 
central square and tropical garden, where tall palms 
wave rustling leaves above an elegant fountain, and in 
the harbor of which is a beautiful view of the near 
island of Nevis, its one mountain rising above clouds 
that are ever changing and always fascinating. Here 
the Governor-in-chief of the Leeward Islands has one of 
his residences, and here I was entertained at dinner by 
him, and met some old friends of years ago. 

Across a narrow channel lies the island of Nevis, 
between which and St. Kitt's a little steam launch 
makes frequent trips. The natural charms of Nevis 
are many, but its memories are sad, for it is now liv- 
ing in the recollection of its past. Ruined estates and 
tumble-down dwellings are scattered over the slopes of 
its beautiful m.ountain, and its few white people, though 
hospitable (as are all West Indians), cannot readily be 
found. When I was there, in 1880, I was entertained 
by a well-known West Indian baronet. Sir Graham 
Briggs, at his plantation. Stony Grove. But Sir Gra- 
ham is now dead ; his vast properties in Nevis and Bar- 
badoes have passed into other hands, and things have 
changed for the worse all over the island. All Eng- 
lishmen know that it was here that Lord Nelson mar- 
ried the Widow Nesbit, in the year 1787; and all 
Americans ought to know that Alexander Hamilton 
was born here, and went from hence to the States, to 
become foremost among men of his time. 

Southwardly from Nevis lies Montserrat, which is 



452 



IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 



now entirely devoted to plantations of limes, thousands 
of acres bearing the fruit from which the now famous 
" Montserrat lime juice" is expressed. I have tested 
the hospitality of the few white inhabitants of Mont- 
serrat, and can assure my readers it was genuine. Like 
all the islands in the Caribbean chain, Montserrat has 
its crater, or sulphur hole, which is a miniature Vesu- 




WASHliRWOMEN OF ^EVIS. 



vius, though no longer active. In this island, when on 
one of my ornithological trips, I discovered a new bird, 
a species of oriole, with beautiful plumage and well- 
defined characteristics, which the naturalists at Wash- 
ington (with the sanction of the British ornithologists) 
named in my honor. It is a pleasant thought: that 



THE SECOND VOYAGE TO THE NEW WORLD. 453 

■one may have a namesake at large in the world that 
■cannot bring him discredit ; but I often recur, with a 
pang of tender solicitude, to my feathered children, 
flitting through the depths of the tropical forests of 
this far-off island, and pray that no harm may befall 
my beautiful Icterus Oberi. 

Montserrat was thought by Columbus to have been 
the abode of the famous Amazons of the Caribbees, 
who dwelt here in this island called Madanino, though 
the great navigator never found those fierce females, 
nor is it known that any such existed. 

East of Nevis is the island of Antigua, the capital of 
which, -St. John's, is the seat of government of the Lee- 
ward Islands. Here resides the present Governor of the 
Leeward group. Sir W. F. Haynes Smith, K. C. M. G., 
whom I had the pleasure of meeting several times, and 
who is locally known as the " Yankee of the Caribbees, " 
from his activity and his benevolent desire to improve the 
condition of his people. He has initiated a movement 
looking to the establishing of a regular line of steamers 
between New York and the Lesser Antilles, and the 
building of hotels in the islands of Dominica and St. 
Kitt's. 

There is, and has been for some years, a line of good 
steamers between these islands and the States, the 
"Quebec Line," which has given much attention to 
the development of tourist travel hither, and has pro- 
vided as regular a service as the travel and traffic 
would warrant. Many have taken advantage of their 
excursion tickets, in the few years past, to visit these 
islands, and all speak with delight of the trip afforded 



454 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

by voyagingf on such steamers as the Caribbee, which 
makes a leisurely tour of the chain, stopping a few 
days at the principal ports, giving ample time for ex- 
cursions into the country, and providing a comfortable 
home for its passengers, to which they can retreat as 
occasion demands. I had the good fortune to meet one 
of these excursion parties, and to spend a week in their 
company, and the memory of the event remains with 
me as one of the pleasantest of my life. 

In Antigua there is little to see except sugar planta- 
tions, where the cultivation has been carried to perfec- 
tion ; but here also one meets with those splendid people 
I have already mentioned, who maintained the prestige 
of the West Indian hospitality. In the center of the 
island is a valley of petrifactions, where beautiful speci- 
mens of silicified woods are found by the cartload. I 
secured many of the best for the Exposition, including 
some perfectly silicified sections of the boles of the cocoa 
palm. 

But I could not prevail upon the Governor and his 
Council to send to the Exposition a representative ex- 
hibit from the Lesser Antilles; though I am sure it was 
not so much the fault of His Excellency as of the local 
councilors, whose insular ideas need not only polishing, 
but a vigorous rasping. 

In memory, I continually revert to a little island 
north of Antigua, where I once had the best hunting 
for small game that I ever enjoyed. The island of 
Barbuda once belonged to the famous Codrington 
family, one of whom established that flourishing seat of 
learning in Barbadoes, Codrington College. Away back 



THE SECOND VOYAGE TO THE NEW WORLD. 455 

in the last century, they stocked the island with deer, 
sheep, guinea fowl and goats, which increased abund- 
antly, and now their descendants swarm here, affording 
the best of sport to one inclined to dally with the hunt- 
ress Diana. Permission must first be obtained at An- 
tigua, but that once secured, a whole island is open to 
the exploration of one who can appreciate the pleasures 
of the chase of small game beneath an ardent sun. 

Directly south of Antigua lies the largest island of 
the Caribbean group — Guadeloupe. It is really two 
islands in one, being divided into two parts by a shallow 
salt-water river; the larger and mountainous one is 
called Guadeloupe, and the low-lying portion Grande 
Terre. Guadeloupe and its dependencies, Marie Gal- 
ante, the Saintes and Desirade, belong to the French, 
although the islands were discovered by the Spanish. 
In truth, the mention of them brings me back to the 
text of my narrative: the wanderings of Columbus, on 
whose trail we are supposed to be. 

We have seen that the fleet prepared for the second 
voyage to the New World, left Cadiz, and steered for the 
Canary isles. Taking his departure from the Canaries, 
a more southerly course was pursued than on the first 
voyage; by this the fleet escaped somewhat the sea- 
weeds of the Sargasso Sea, and the trade winds wafted 
them steadily onward. 

On Saturday, the second of November, 1493, Colum- 
bus noted signs of land — at least, of its proximity — and 
early next morning a blue and beautiful island rose to 
sight. Having been sighted on a Sunday, this land was 
called Dominica, by which name it is still known. The 



456 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

Spaniards did not land on this island, as the windward,, 
or Atlantic shores of all the Caribbees are, in general, 
rough and difficult of approach. They kept on, and first 
touched shore at another and smaller island, of which 
the Admiral took possession in the name of Spain, call- 
ing it Marigalante, after the ship which he commanded. 
Sailing on toward a still larger island, above which 
towered a cloud-capped volcano, they landed at a point 
on its eastern shore, finding there an Indian village, and 
for the first time seeing evidences of the Caribs — the 
fierce man-eaters of whom they had heard such won- 
derful stories on the previous voyage. Fortunately for 
some of the Spaniards, who later were lost for several 
days in the forest, most of the warriors were away, on 
a predatory expedition to the northward ; but even the 
women were difficult to capture, and fought like demons. 
It is recorded that Columbus found in Guadeloupe 
the stern-post of a vessel, and other indications of ex- 
traneous civilization, that had probably drifted upon 
this shore from the Atlantic currents; and here he 
first met with the pineapple. A party of the Spaniards 
having strayed into the forest and lost their way, the 
valiant Alonzo de Ojeda was sent in search of them. 
On his return, he gave the most enthusiastic account of 
the rich and beautiful country, the forests filled with 
aromatic trees and shrubs, which he believed produced 
precious gums and spices. He declared there was no 
country like it, or so well watered, for he had forded 
and waded twenty-six rivers in the distance of six 
leagues; and as for the forests, the trees were so tall, he 
said, as to obscure the light of day. 



THE SECOND VOYAGE TO THE NEW WORLD. 457 

Sailing onward, the voyagers saw island after island 
rising above the waves : those that I have described as 
lying between Guadeloupe and St. Thomas ; and finally 
they reached their destination — the island of Santo- 
Domingo. 

Having followed Columbus throughout his voyagings 
thus far in the West Indies, let us complete our investi- 
gations by seeking to identify the places connected with 
his landings at Guadeloupe. In pursuance of my plan 
to visit every island of the Antilles of importance, and 
present to every government the invitation from our 
own to participate with us in celebrating the Columbian 
anniversary, I touched at Basse Terre, the seaport on 
the Caribbean side of Guadeloupe, in April, 1892. Basse 
Terre is the most picturesque port of the island, but 
the roadstead is open, and the chief harbor is that of 
Pointe a Pitre, in the Grande Terre portion. 

I was presented to the Governor, M. Nouet, and in- 
vited by His Excellency to visit a while at his "hotel " 
at Camp Jacob. Behind two powerful American mules 
we rode up the steep hills to the Governor's country 
seat in the mountains, near the hamlet of Camp Jacob, 
which is a retreat for the people of the coast during the 
heat and sickly season of the summer. Here are vast 
coffee estates, winding roads and lanes lined with tree- 
ferns and plantains, and all the rank and luxuriant 
vegetation of the tropic belt. The air is deliciously 
cool, and at night it is a delight to be abroad. The 
Governor's house is a large and handsome building, 
perfect in all its appointments, and planted in the midst 
of a gloriously beautiful garden, with every kind of fruit 



458 



IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 



and flower. Bamboos clashed their spears above trick- 
ling rills, long avenues of pomme-rose trees gave dense! 
shade and secluded walks, kiosks under broad mango- j 
trees looked out upon the plains and distant sea, and] 
above the myriad flowers hovered living gems in shape ' 
of humming-birds. I was offered a little cottage in one j 
of the gardens, for as long a time as I would occupy, 




GKEAT TREKS OF THE HIGH WOODS. 



and it has been my regret ever since that I could not 
accept the Governor's offer to tarry a while in this ter- 
restrial paradise. 

His Excellency is a Frenchman, born in Paris, though 
long resident in foreign lands on service for his coun- 
try; and, having made the tour of the United States, 
speaks our language perfectly. He not only provided 
for little excursions about the hamlet, but one mornine 



THE SECOND VOYAGE TO THE NEW WORLD. 459 

took me up into the high woods — those glorious forests 
in which I dwelt for months some fourteen years before * 
It was a joy to re- visit the scenes of my adventures to 
ride through the somber high woods, with their won- 
derful vegetation, with the mighty gommier-trees tower- 
ing aloft, hung with cable-like Hanas, and completely 
enveloped in orchids and air plants. There is no more 
attractive ride accessible to the traveler anywhere than 
that over the paths opened by Governor Nouet through 
the high woods near the Camp. At the base of the 
highest hill near the foot of the volcano, is a hot spring 
which has been walled up and converted into a bath, 
where the Governor and myself had a refreshing dip, 
ere we descended to the Camp again. Below, and run- 
ning up into the forest, are old coffee estates, one of 
which belongs to an old friend, M. Colardeau, director 
of the Jardin des Plantes, and where I was entertained 
while hunting these forests for rare birds. 

My friends would have kept me long, but my work 
demanded my presence elsewhere. At an attractive 
place some ten miles from Basse Terre, I saw and 
photographed a large rock with carvings upon it, said to 
be Carib, near a little bay where the aborigines are 
known to have lived. But the most interesting spot 
was at Carbet, near the point of Capesterre, on the 
eastern coast of Guadeloupe, for this was the first land- 
ing-place of Columbus, where he found the first evi- 
dences of the Caribs. A stream drops down to the coast, 

* My descriptions of the vegetation, the birds, and an ascent of the volcano, or the great 
sulphur mountain, have already been given in my book of adventures, entitled " Camps 
in the Caribbees," and published in 1S79. I need not repeat them here. 



460 



IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 



I 



forming an entrance from the sea suitable for canoes, 
and the rich land slopes back toward the distant hills. 
At the mouth of the river is a gnarled native "banyan" 
tree, on the beach, and this I photographed, as a dis- 
tinctive object for the identification of the spot. 

My guide to the place was M. Charles Hyot, a wealthy 
planter resident at Capesterre. He had informed him- 
self thoroughly upon the evidence, and had identified the 




BANYAN-TREE. — GUADELOUPE. 

(Where Columbus first landed on his second voyage.) 

spot as that of the first landing of Columbus on the 
second voyage. I spent a night and a day at his beau- 
tiful plantation, and he also took me to the bay at which 
Columbus remained several days while awaiting the re- 
turn of his soldiers lost in the forests. This is the Bay 
St. Marie, where another river forms a wide though 



THE SECOND VOYAGE TO THE NEW WORLD. 4G1 

shallow harbor behind a line of reefs, and about which 
the scenery is as delightful as at the time of the first 
arrival of white men in this region. Beyond the palms 
that adorn the estates, beyond the plains and swellino- 
hills, and beyond the shoulders of the volcano, which 
rises to the clouds, is the great waterfall, described by 
Columbus. It is so distant as to seem a mere thread 
drawn against the rock ; it drops, white against the 
somber background of the forest, and to-day, as when 
first observed by Columbus, it appears, to use his own 
expressive language, to be falling from the sky. 

The Caribbee islands, which form the crescentic chain 
between latitude twelve and twenty, north of the equa- 
tor, possess every variety of climate between temperate 
and tropic, and every beautiful aspect of vegetation, 
from the sugar-cane of the coast to the feathery tree- 
fern of the cool and pleasant high woods, with their 
giant trees and tangle of vines and bush -ropes. 

Along the coast are all the fruits for which the West 
Indies are noted: custard-apples, sapodillas, guavas, 
mangoes, soursops, and the score or two of others more 
familiarly known to the North. 

In the high woods are many rare plants and trees, 
such as the great figuer^ or wild fig ; delicate ferns, and 
their big brothers, the magnificent tree-ferns; the most 
conspicuous tree being the goniinier^ or giant gum, the 
bursera gummifera, from which the Carib Indians hew ou«t 
their large canoes. Climbing higher, the ground is seen 
carpeted with a curious lycopodium, unlike an3^thing of 
its family found elsewhere. 

There are at least four islands in the Caribbees that 



462 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 



% 



nearly realize one's ideals. These are: Guadeloupe, 
Dominica, Martinique and St. Vincent. The first is 
grand and gloomy, yet with shining shores ; the second 
equally somber as to the mountain region, but break- 
ing out into broad sm.iling tracts of sugar-cane; the 
third combines the features of the other two ; the fourth 
has all the beauty of the three combined, and. less of 
sombemess. 

Dear old Dominica, however, has for me the greatest 
charm, for in this island I first tasted the delights of 
adventure in tropic forests. Here I first camped in 
huts with thatch of palm; here I made the acquaint- 
ance of strange forms of animal life ; here I found my 
first new bird, and here I lived a free, wild life for 
many months. 

My visit to the Caribs of Dominica was for the pur- 
pose of ascertaining how many of them, of pure blood, 
could be prevailed upon to go to the Exposition ; it being 
the intention of the managers to gather there all the 
representative Indians of North and South America. 

The Caribs, as the last living representatives of the 
Indians found in these islands by Columbus, possess a 
peculiar interest for the ethnologist, and it was my de- 
sire to secure from them not only an exhibit, but the 
best types of the people themselves. There are very 
few of pure Indian blood remaining, as, in the course of 
generations, they have become mixed to a great extent 
with the blacks. 

Altogether, there may be two hundred Caribs in 
Dominica, and of this number some fifteen families are 
uncontaminated with negro blood. They live in the same 



THE SECOND VOYAGE TO THE NEW WORLD. 465 

primitive style as did their ancestors when found by 
Columbus; dwelling in huts of palm, tilling a little 
land, making cassava bread from the manihot plant, 
fishing when the sea is smooth, hewing out canoes from 
the great gum-trees, and weaving baskets. 

Their life is a careless and happy one, but altogether 
devoid of the diversions of a civilized state of existence. 
There are now among them about ten expert canoe 
makers, and twenty basket weavers ; these pursue their 
vocations contentedly, under the thick shade of the 
mango-trees, in fair weather, and retreat to the huts 
when the rain comes down. 

A very few of them speak the ancient Carib tongue, 
and my companion, who is a linguist, is preparing a 
vocabulary of the last remaining words as spoken by 
the older Indians to-day. 

Their speech is a compound of English and French 
patois^ and I can no better illustrate it, perhaps, than 
by quoting the remark of an old Indian whose wife 
was ill, and about whose condition he had great solici- 
tude: " Eef he make sick some more I must to geeve 
heem some peel (pills) porchi, I not want to lose heem, 
like my ozer wife, who die and have same r^;//-plaint. " 
This Indian spoke English better than French, but there 
are others who speak the patois entirely, and others again 
who use the mixture. 

It was in the distant mountains back of the Indian 
country that I had the good fortune to find specimens 
of a most magnificent parrot, known to the naturalists 
as the Chrysotis Aitgiista — the Imperial, one of the 
largest in the world. That was on my first exploration, 



466 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

and on the third I obtained a live specimen, which I 
took to the States. Although one of the most beautiful 
of birds, and apparently intelligent, the CJirysotis has 
never been known to talk — that is, to learn words or 
phrases and repeat them by rote. 

All birds, however, speak in their own fashion. Jean 
Baptiste used to assure me that some of them were poly- 
glots. One of the birds seen frequently in the woods, is 
a species of grosbeck; this he called the ^^ Priez-Dieu," 
because, he said, it repeated these words. One would 
cry, " Pries- Dieu, Priez-Dieu ! " and its mate would 
reply, '■'■Pierre, priez pour nous ! " "Pray for us, Peter, 
pray for us." Another bird he called the " Oiseau Bon- 
Dieu," or God-bird, because it led a harmless life, and 
did no evil. This bird was a species of warbler, but in 
the other islands the wren is known as the God-bird. 

The Imperial Parrot, to which I have alluded, is con- 
fined to the island of Dominica, as a species, but there 
are others of the genus in several islands. There was 
one, formerly, in Martinique, only thirty miles away; 
there is another in St. Lucia, and yet another in St. 
Vincent. All are beautiful; all large and strong of 
wing; yet no species of any one island has ever been 
found in any other. This fact may serve to throw a 
little light upon the question of the ancient contiguity 
of these islands, and there are many other items of in- 
terest in connection with the study of the avi-fauna of 
the CaribbeeSjthat may sometime serve the investigators. 

Half a degree of latitude south of Dominica lies 
the mountain island of Martinique, some fifty miles in 
length, with deep-water bays, grim promontories, fertile 



THE SECOND VOYAGE TO THE NEW WORLD. 467 

valleys, and possessing a vegetation unsurpassed for 
beauty and exuberance. Its principal port is St. Pierre, 
situated on a broad bay some three miles in length ; the 
water in the harbor of St. Pierre is so deep that vessels 
at anchor have to run out all their chain. Its houses of 
stone and brick were formerly covered with tiles, mel- 







!^ r; 



kJ-v«V' 






l\ M . M C 1 V. 



low-red in tone; but since the hurricane of 1 891, the 
roofs are hideous in tin and galvanized iron. The side- 
walks are mere cat-paths separated from the streets 
by deep gutters, through which, every morning, swift 
streams course from the hills and lose themselves in 
the bay. These living waters serve to cleanse the city 
and carry away the garbage, and every morning hun- 
dreds of black and yellow servants emerge from the 



468 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

dwellings with tall earthen jars on their heads, the con- 
tents of which are dumped in the gutters. Babies are 
washed in these watercourses, held by their hair or 
their girdles, lest they be swept away, and even dishes 
may be seen piled upon the curbs. 

It is in the morning that the servants thus disport 
themselves in the streets, but in the afternoon their 
masters and mistresses may be seen on the promenade 
leading to the river, or strolling through the avenues 
of the Jardin des Plantes, which is more than locally 
celebrated for its horticultural rarities. The high- 
class Creoles of Martinique are dressed in the height of 
fashion; but those lowlier born wear garments more 
gorgeous, yet decidedly more becoming. There are 
perhaps one hundred and sixty thousand people in Mar- 
tinique; the great majority are colored, and many of 
the quarter and eighth castes women (quadroons and 
octoroons) are noted for their beauty. With their 
dresses of the last century — high-waisted, loosely-flow- 
ing, and bright of color, and their superabundance of 
ornamentation, the octoroons of the island are attractive 
and striking. 

In my last visit I found that Martinique had changed 
greatly in the fourteen years since I first made its ac- 
quaintance — and for the worse. The white people have 
either died out or have moved away, and the island 
population is taking on the hue and habits of the Afri- 
can. There was formerly a fine society of whites, and 
it was a pleasure to promenade of an afternoon, as one 
always felt sure of meeting some interesting person. 
But latterly all this seems to have changed. It may 



THE SECOND VOYAGE TO THE NEW WORLD. 



469 



have been the hurricane, which swept over the island in 
August, 1 89 1, destroying all the crops, sweeping away 
forests, and killing many people. Becoming discour- 
aged at the appalling losses, the white inhabitants may 
have given up the fight against the elements, and have 
sought other fields for enterprise.. At the time of my 
last visit, the shore was still lined with wrecks, half of 
the houses of St. Pierre were roofless, and nearly the 




NKGRO BOYS OF MARTINIQUE. 

whole of Fort de France, the capital of the island, had 
been destroyed. It was a grievous sight, and I did not 
expect a hopeful answer to my invitation to the Exposi- 
tion. I met the Governor at Fort de France, and found 
him very amiable. He was a Frenchman, and was 
domiciled in one of the few houses still standing in 
the ravaged city. Fourteen years ago I photographed 
and described the birthplace of Josephine, at one time 
Empress of the French; but I was assured that the last 



470 



IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 



ruin of the habitations had been swept away by the hur- 
ricane. Around the beautiful statue in the savane of 
the capital the tall palmistes stood erect, like masts 
divested of their sails, with hardly a shred of leaf 
remaining. 

Against the hurricane and earthquake, the white peo- 
ple of the West Indies have ever had the courage to 
fight, and hopefully; but against the black inundation 
from Africa which has swept their shores they are 
powerless. 




XXIII. 

CARIB ISLANDS AND LAKE DWELLERS. 

ALL these Southern islands of the West Indies, at 
the time of their discovery, were in the posses- 
sion of the Caribs; but in two of them only, are there 
any remaining Indians at the present time. These 
are Dominica and St. Vincent, lying about two degrees 
apart, and between are the islands of Martinique and 
St. Lucia. 

Sailing south from Martinique, the first object claim- 
ing attention is an isolated rock, some five hundred feet 
high, at a distance from the coast, and commanding the 
channel into Port Royal. It is a rock with a unique 
history, for it has had the honor of having been entered 
on the books of the British Admiralty as a ship. It was 
when the French and English were at odds, a little less 
than a hundred years ago, that Lord Howe took posses- 
sion of this great rock, sent some guns to its summit, 
manned it with a dozen sailors and a midshipman, and 
then sailed away, leaving the gallant fellows with a 
year's provisions and any amount of pluck. They did 
good work in annoying the Frenchmen, and it is said 
sent several vessels to the bottom of the sea; but at 

471 



472 



IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 



last their provisions gave out, and they were obliged to 
surrender. So it was that the good "ship" the Dia- 
mond^ though she surrendered her crew, was never 
sunk, but left where her captors found her, and there 
she may still be seen. 

It cannot be said that the island of St. Lucia is attrac- 
tive, though its only town has a perfect harbor, which 










THE DIAMOND ROCK OFF MARTINIQUE. 

{As seen through the steamer'' s port-hole.) 



the English are fortifying, and attempting to convert 
into a second Gibraltar. The harbor and town of Cas- 
tries have an unsavory reputation for fever and smells. 
I was in the harbor at one time, on board our cruiser 
the PJiiladelphia, when the horrible odors came off at 



CARIB ISLANDS AND LAKE DWELLERS. 473 

night so strong and fever-suggestive, that orders were 
given to up anchor and seek another station. 

Castries has improved greatly in late years, and may 
eventually become an attractive spot ; but it is hot and 
sometimes unhealthy. 

Like all these Caribbee islands, St. Lucia can boast of 
its " Soufriere " or sulphur basin, in the heart of an ex- 
tinct crater. To reach this one it is necessary to take 
passage in a small coasting launch that goes down the 
leeward coast in the morning, returning at night to 
Castries. The trip is well worth the while, for the 
crater is still smoking and steaming, and the sulphur is 
being gathered from the vent-holes where it is depos- 
ited and sublimated. Beautiful streams pour into this 
basin, one of them being half-concealed in ferns and 
broad-leaved plants. In exploring this sulphur de- 
posit, one must be careful, as the crust is thin, and acci- 
dents sometimes happen. We saw an old man who had 
lost one of his feet by having broken through the crust 
and plunged into a caldron of steam and hot water. 
The sulphur is carried out on the heads of negroes and 
negresses, and shipped from the bay of Soufriere, where, 
there is a most attractive village, nestled under the 
Pitons. 

The Pitons are the most symmetrical mountains in 
the world. They lie at the southern end of St. Lucia, 
detached and isolate, a pair of pyramids, the higher one 
three thousand feet in altitude, clothed from base to 
summit in living green, and so steep that no one has 
ever climbed them, and returned to tell the tale. 

It is related that four English sailors once attempted 



474 



IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 



the feat, but that all died before they accomplished it, 
either of fatigue or, as is more probable, from the stings 
of the terrible serpent the '.'Iron Lance." St. Lucia, 
like Martinique, is infested with this poisonous reptile, 




' .-r _*i-~6^-i-it-).c-/N>u - 



THE PITONS OF ST. LUCIA. 



and has not yet been able to cope with it, though it is 
said the introduction of the mongoose has somewhat 
diminished its numbers. 

From the vicinity of the Pitons can be seen another 
island, still more beautiful than any we have visited. 
This is St. Vincent, than which none can be found more 
complete in charms of scenery. The capital of St. Vin- 
cent is Kingstown ; and its inhabitants are as particular 
that you put in the " w " in the spelling of " town," as 
the residents of Arkansas are that you pronounce their 
State's name with a "saw." There is another Kings- 
ton, they say, in Jamaica, but only one Kingstown, and 
that is in St. Vincent. 



4 



CARIB ISLANDS AND LAKE DWELLERS. 



475 



At any rate, there is no prettier town to be found any- 
where in the islands, if we take its siirroundings into 
the picture, bordering as it does a wide bay, with tossed 
and jagged hills rising behind it. The people resident 
here are friendly, and the whites are in greater propor- 
tion to the blacks than in the other islands. This is 
shown when there is a ball or a tennis meet, for then 
all the pretty girls — and St. Vincent is noted for them 




KINGSTOWN, CAPITAL, OF ST. VINCENT. 

— assemble in force, and, as it were, carry the visitors 
by storm. 

Back of the town is the botanic garden — the oldest 
botanical station in these parts. Here was introduced 



476 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

first the bread-fruit, nutmeg and other valuable trees. 
Here resides the Administrator, or resident executive; 
the Governor of the Windward Islands, to which St. 
Vincent belongs, lives at Grenada. That the white in- 
habitants were exceedingly attentive to strangers, when 
I was here on my first visit, I myself am a living wit- 
ness — having experienced their kindness while very 
sick with fever. Luxuries that money could not buy, 
and attentions grateful to an invalid, they lavishly 
bestowed, and the very name of St. Vincent awakens 
tender recollections. 

I did not linger long in town, as the remoter parts 
of the island beckoned me away to explore them ; and 
taking seats one day, in a " passage boat," a friend and 
myself left for the north end, skirting the leeward 
shore. The "passage boat" was about thirty feet in 
length, with five rowers and a "captain;" and was 
piled high amidships with merchandise and great Carib 
baskets. 

Our boat trip ended at the little town of Chateaube- 
lair, which we reached at dusk, finding the sea running 
so high that the boat could not be beached. So it was 
backed in as near as possible, and held there, while 
three of the boatmen plunged into the sea and carried 
us severally ashore in their arms. They were knocked 
down three times before they had landed the luggage; 
but finally all was safe on the sands, and we were 
taken to the estate house at Golden Grove, which had 
kindly been placed at our orders by its owner. This 
estate was but one of many owned by the proprietor, 
Mr. Porter, who has in his possession nearly two thirds 



CARIB ISLANDS AND LAKE DWELLERS. 



477 



the sugar plantations of the island. The house was 
vacant, but in charge of an old lady who provided us 
with a good dinner, and made up comfortable beds; 
and here we met some friends of the past, who had 
been managers of estates and were managers still, with 
little hope of ever securing properties of their own. 

It was at Chateaubelair that a most curious discovery 
was made, a few years ago, of Carib relics. In opening 




PALMS OF THE LEEWARD COAST. — ST. VINCENT. 

a road near the beach, a cache was uncovered of stone 
weapons and agricultural implements, some two hun- 
dred in number, that had been buried there at least 
three hundred years ago. There were hoes and axes, 
hatchets, celts, and several huge battle-axes. I myself 
secured, at another point, two great battle-axes, one 



478 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

weighing six pounds and with a breadth of ten inches. 
These relics of the aborigines were exhibited at the 
Jamaica exposition of 1891, and there attracted much 
attention. No one knows who hid them there, or for 
what purpose, but they were probably concealed by the 
ancient Caribs for use in any need at time of war, or 
sudden irruption of their enemies from South America. 
Although found on private property, the stones were 
claimed by the Crown, and may eventually become the 
nucleus of a collection for a valuable local museum. 

The air was cool that night, and the ensuing morning- 
was cool and sweet, as we rode to Richmond, the next es- 
tate, where we breakfasted. This estate lies in a pretty 
valley, and contains some eight hundred acres, planted 
in sugar-cane, and managed by Alexander Frazer, an- 
other old acquaintance of times past. Hence, mounted 
on horses loaned by the manager, we rode over to 
Morne Ronde, where the Black Caribs live. Their huts, 
of palm are half-hidden in natural groves of mango, 
cacao and bread-fruit. All were at home awaiting me, 
as the Royal Ranger, Mr. Musgrave, had sent word 
from town that I was coming, and old Frangois, whom 
I had met in Jamaica, had prevented any one from 
leaving the settlement. We assembled in the great 
hut where the basket makers worked, who pursued 
their vocation industriously. Gathered outside were 
the girls and boys, separating of their own accord into 
groups. They are all dark, and many with curly hair 
— for these Black Caribs are the result of the intermix- 
ture of the real, or Yellow, Caribs and negroes. 

They have a fine reservation, extending from the 



I 



CARIB ISLANDS AND LAKE DWELLERS. 



479 



sea far up into the mountains, and containing over four 
hundred acres. In all they number about two hundred ; 
old Frangois went out and took the census, while I 
waited in the hut. They drank the spirits sent them, 
and with great enjoyment smoked the cigars we brought, 
giving us in exchange cocoanut water and poached 
eggs. There was but one of them who could speak, or 




THE TEN LITTLE CARIES. 



pretended to speak, the Carib tongue, and as no one else 
knew the sense of his lingo, it had to pass as that. 

The small boys and girls frisked and played in the 
water, deriving much enjoyment from capsizing an old 
canoe, and then going to its rescue before it was carried 
away by the waves. 



480 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

The baskets made by these Black Caribs are in such 
demand that they are kept busy filling orders, and seem 
much more industrious than their Indian brothers of 
Dominica. Their reservation is owned in common, but 
each family possesses its plot for individual cultivation. 

Peaceful and quiet as they now are, their ancestors 
made a great deal of trouble for the planters here a 
hundred years ago. At the house on the Richmond 
estate I was shown an old table hacked by the cutlasses 
of the Indian rebels of that time; and it is a matter of 
local history that the manager of the adjoining estate 
of Wallilabou was captured by them, and killed by 
being crushed between the rollers of his cane mill. 

Having seen the Blacks, my next visit was to the 
Yellow Caribs, on the other side of the mountain; to 
Teach them we were obliged to climb the volcano, and 
descend the eastern slope to the windward coast. 

Mr. Frazer loaned us a horse and a mule, and we 
cantered across the Dry River to the hills, where we 
overtook two jolly priests, with whom we kept company 
to the top of the volcano, making, with our attendants, 
a long procession, winding up the narrow trail. Glori- 
ous were the views on every side, increasing in beauty 
and extent as we got higher, and the woods shut out 
the prospect, though giving us in exchange rare effects 
in leaf and shade. We halted at the " Maroon-Tree," 
for rest and refreshment, and at noon were at a cave 
under the brim of the crater, where we gathered for 
lunch. The priests were well provided with proven- 
der, and we mingled our cheer in the cave, lunching 
al fresco. 



CARIB ISLANDS AND LAKE DWELLERS. 481 

Fourteen years before I had spent the greater part of 
four days and nights in this same cave, having as com- 
pany an old negro, my object being to secure a rare 
bird that inhabited the upper slopes of the volcano. 
The people of the island called it the " Invisible Bird," 
because, though they heard its song, they could never 
discover the singer. I secured several specimens, but 
only by living on the crest of the volcano for four days, 
and camping with the old negro in the cave. The 
exposure also gave me a fever which lasted several 
months, and thus the bird cost me dear — even though 
it proved to be a species new to the world. 

And to return to this lone place, many years after 
the event, and have my photograph taken in the very 
cave where I had passed some very dreary hours — this 
was one of the strangCvSt things that ever happened to 
me. I heard the strains of the Soufriere Bird (the 
"invisible " one) all along the trail; but on this visit I 
carried no gun, and the little creature was not molested. 

Just back of the cave is the crater-brim, and far below 
it lies a pearly lake, slumbering in beauty, two thousand 
feet above the sea. The volcano peak is three thousand 
feet above sea-level, and is only attained after hard 
struggle and climbing. Here the priests parted from 
us, at the fork of the windward trail, and as it was so 
bad that no horse could descend, we sent our animals 
back and essayed the remainder on foot. It was deeply 
gullied and almost impassable, plunging deep into the 
ferns in its descent until the heat was well-nigh intol- 
erable. The last mile or so was through thickets of 
ferns and mountain palms, but emerging from there we 



482 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

entered the open pasture-lands of Mahoe, thickly stud- 
ded with great bread-fruit-trees, and then descended 
into the cultivated lands of " Lot Fourteen; " we passed 
through immense cane fields, and finally reached the 
"works," where the boilers were in full blast, and 
numerous negroes were feeding the rollers. 

The manager was away, but the overseer gave us two 
mounts — one on a mule, having a saddle without girth 
or stirrups — and we were soon cantering off for the 
" Carib Country," a two hours' ride distant. Striking 
across the fields, we followed the main road along the 
windward coast ; it dwindled finally into a bridle-trail 
beyond Overland Village, and then climbed the steep 
hills that guarded the Carib lands. We reached the 
settlement, Sandy Bay, after dark. 

I had taken the precaution to send on boxes of pro- 
visions, two days ahead; but they had not arrived, and 
so an old Carib friend, Rabacca, volunteered to go in 
search of them. He returned late in the night, and 
then we swung our hammocks, opened our canned pro- 
visions and feasted in the hut that a good Indian widow 
had vacated in anticipation of our coming. 

In the morning the Indian friends of past hunting 
adventures came to see me, and I heard the same sad 
stories that all the world is familiar with — of sickness 
and death, and struggles with poverty. The former 
chief of the settlement, Captain George, had lost his 
good old wife, but was now rejoicing in a handsomer 
new one, and living high up in the hills. One of the 
girls, whom I remembered as the prettiest Indian child 
I had ever seen, was now changed into a coarse, but 



CARIB ISLANDS AND LAKE DWELLERS. 



483 



comely woman. She took me to the site of her mother's 
hut on the hill, and described to me the terrible hurri- 
cane that had blown the hut away, and destroyed every 
vestige of their carefully-kept garden. Disaster had 
overtaken them ; one by one her family had gone away, 
until she alone was left with her old mother, and 







^^1 —f^!J^\0^- 



BEACH NEAK THE BOCA. — TKI>iIDAD. 



obliged to cultivate with her own hands the little strip 
of arrowroot ground on the hillside, the only resource 
that lay between them and absolute starvation. 

Sandy Bay is the central settlement of the Yellow 
Caribs. These people have no reservation of their own, 
but hire land of the Government. They live by the 
cultivation of arrowroot, mainly, with occasional forays 
upon the sea, and working now and then upon the sugar 



484 



IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 



plantations. Their habits are similar to those of the 
Dominica Caribs, and there are about the same num- 
ber of the pure-blooded Indians here as in the northern 
island. Altogether, in both islands, there may be about 
three hundred descendants of the Indians discovered in 
the Caribbees by the first Spaniards, and equally divided 
between the two. 

St. Vincent was discovered, it is believed, by Colum- 
bus, on his third or fourth voyage to America, but it 
was for a long time overlooked, and the Spaniards 
never made a settlement here. 

Lying three degrees farther to the south is another and 
vastly larger and more important island, that of Trini- 
dad, between ten and eleven degrees of north latitude, 
which was first seen by Columbus on his third voyage, 
in 1498. He had been two months at sea, and was 
suffering from the dreadful heat of this latitude, with 
nearly all his store of water gone, when the watch at 
the mast-head descried the peaks of three mountains 
in the distance, which a nearer approach revealed to be 
united at their base. The land to which they ap- 
pertained Columbus at once called Trinidad, or the 
Trinity, having previously promised to name his next 
discovery after the sacred Triad, in token of his grati- 
tude at sight of land. He approached the island from 
the southeast, coasting its southern shore, and entering 
the Bay of Paria through the passage which he named 
the Serpent's Mouth ; the Boca del Serpiente. 

Coming up under its western shore, he was surprised 
to observe the verdure of its forests and the beautiful 
trees that came down to the water's edge; for he had 



CARIB ISLANDS AND LAKE DWELLERS. 



485 



reasoned that, being so near the equator, he should find 
the vegetation parched from the heat, with little water 
and moisture. He also thought that the inhabitants of 
this country would appear like the negroes of Africa ; 
with skins black from exposure to the sun, and woolly 




■W^^^ 



THE PITCH LAKE. — TKINIDAD. 



hair. Instead, he found the people who came out to 
his vessels in their canoes to be like the Caribs in the 
islands to the north, and equally as comely. 

His reasonings and conclusions are quaintly set forth 
in the writings of Pietro Martire, one of the first chroni- 
clers of his discoveries : 

"So that, as he (Columbus) saith, it (the earth) is 
not round after the form of a ball or an apple, as 
others think, but rather like a pear as it hangeth on the 
tree; and that Paria is that region which possesseth 



486 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

the super-eminent or highest part thereof, nearest Tinto 
heaven. Insomuch that he earnestly contendeth the 
Earthly Paradise to be situate in the top of those three 
hills which the watchman saw out of the top-castle of 
the ship; and that the outrageous streams of the fresh 
waters which did so violently issue out of the said gulf, 
and strive so with the salt water, fall headlong from 
the tops of the said mountains. " 

He coasted the inner shores of Trinidad, delighted 
with the scenery, and discovering troops of monkeys 
sporting in the forests; then he stood across for the 
peninsula of Paria, where he found the most agree- 
able Indians the Spaniards had ever seen. Here he 
saw the first pearls, and gained information of the Pearl 
Islands, which he later sailed to, and from which he 
brought away some valuable specimens. He found 
oysters growing on trees, and recalling what the learned 
Pliny had written regarding the formation of pearls 
from dew, inferred that they hung there with their 
mouths open to receive the dew that was to be trans- 
muted into the precious pearls. Oysters may be seen 
there now, growing in the same manner, suspended 
from the twigs and roots of the mangroves ; but no one 
has yet found pearls in any quantity in the Gulf of 
Paria. 

It was about mid-August that he sailed through the 
Serpent's Mouth (which he so named because of the 
terrible currents he encountered there), and steered 
northwardly, first visiting the Pearl Islands, Cubagua 
and Margarita, and thence making for Hispaniola. 

Arrived there, he found the island in turmoil, and 



CARIB ISLANDS AND LAKE DWELLERS. 487 

eventually he was made prisoner by Bobadilla, an offi- 
cial sent out by the king of Spain, and returned home in 
chains. Columbus would have remained longer amono- 
the Pearl Islands, which gave such promise of wealth, 
but a malady of the eyes made him nearly blind, and 
he was obliged to seek the island of Hispaniola, where 
there was promise of relief. 

During the year that followed, he sent home to Spain 
an account of his discoveries and specimens of the finest 
pearls, by which other adventurers became aware of 
the richness of the newly-discovered land ; and one of 
his old companions, Alonzo de Ojeda, a brave soldier, 
obtained the king's permission to fit out an expedition 
to explore where Columbus left off. With Ojeda was 
another adventurer, then unknown, but who subse- 
quently became famous, through his narrative of the 
voyage, and through having his name given to the 
country discovered by Columbus. This man was 
Americus Vespucci, and he arrived at the Gulf of Paria 
and the Pearl Islands in the year following the visit of 
Columbus, 1499. 

It has been denied by some investigators that our 
country was named after the Florentine, but that it de- 
rived its name from an aboriginal word in use on this 
very peninsula of Paria, Americapan, which is appHed 
to a settlement there. This may be so ; let the geog- 
raphers decide it; but one thing is certain: Vespucci 
gave the name to the richest country on the north coast 
of South America — Venezuela. 

Sailing beyond the Pearl Islands, these purloiners 
from the fame of Columbus discovered Curagao, which 



488 



IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 



they described as inhabited by a race of giants, and 
then proceeded still farther to the west, and entered 
the great Gulf of Maracaibo. On its eastern shore they 
saw a more surprising sight than any that yet had 
greeted their eyes, for, standing out into the waters of a 
placid bay, at a distance from the shore, was an Indian 
village. It was built on long piles driven into the 



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f.'^r>-^\-/ 



SUNSET ON THE VENEZUELAN COAST. 



bottom of the lake, and consisted of palm-leaf huts, 
bell-shaped, and perched on platforms, with slight con- 
necting drawbridges between them. Numerous Indians 
sported in the water, and darted about in their canoes, 
but as soon as they saw the great vessels of the Span- 



I 



CARIB ISLANDS AND LAKE DWELLERS. 



489 



iards coming toward them, they fled to their habitations, 
raised their drawbridges, and prepared for fight. This 
village in the water, so different from anything previ- 
ously seen, struck Vespucci so forcibly that he called it 




PLOUGHIISti UiSDEK THE I'ALJIS. 



" Venezuela," or Little Venice — a name that has since 
been applied to the country adjacent to the gulf and the 
sea he was navigating. 

The Caribs, then, and the Lake Dwellers discovered 
by Vespucci, are about the only Indians whose descend- 
ants still live in the places where originally found. I 
have grouped them together in this chapter on that 
account, having myself visited them all at various 
times. 

In the spring of 1890 I went to Maracaibo, on the 
gulf of that name, and from that city took a boat for 
the settlement of Lake Dwellers, which is known as 
Santa Rosa. I found them livinaf in huts made of reeds 



490 



IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 



and palm, erected upon piles in the lake, in water about 
waist deep, and exactly as described by Vespucci, four 
hundred years ago. These Lake Dwellers are mild 
and good natured, differing from the Guajiros on the 
main, opposite, who are ferocious, wild, unsubdued, still 
ruled by their own chiefs, and governed by their own 
laws. 

The Lake Dwellers live as lived their ancient proto- 
types of the Swiss Lakes, and, together with another 

settlement higher 
up Lake Mara- 
caibo, are the last 
survivors of a 
most interesting 
people. 

Being only ten 
miles distant from 
the large city of 
Maracaibo, they 
all speak Spanish 
as well as their 
own tongue, and find a market for their fish and small 
articles in that city. They still retain the fondness for 
white men that so captivated Ojeda and Vespucci, and 
mothers regularly sell their children to strangers for as 
long a period as may be desired. The market price for 
an Indian girl at the Lake settlement is all the way 
from twenty to sixty dollars, and they go into service 
virtually the property of their purchasers, making faith- 
ful servants and devoted adherents. Boys command a 
lower price, and can be got for ten and fifteen dollars 




\vashi:ng clothes at cuijacau. 



CARIB ISLANDS AND LAKE DWELLERS. 



491 



each. It seems to be an understood arrangement that 
the mothers shall sell their children, and does not 
diminish filial affection at all, if one may judge from 
appearances. 

They are peaceable now, though their ancestors were 
warlike, and gave battle to Ojeda, at first, finally be- 
coming reconciled, and parting from him the best of 
friends. 

The voyage terminated in June, 1500, when the ad- 
venturers finally returned to Cadiz, but a few months 
previous to the arrival there of the great Admiral wear- 
ing the chains placed upon him by Bobadilla. Summing 
up the results of the voyage, they found it had been 
unprofitable ; although a small vessel, that had started 
after they had sailed, and returned two months before, 
brought home great quantities of beautiful pearls, and 
from the very islands they themselves had visited. 




XXIV. 

JAMAICA AND THE WRECK OF COLUMBUS. 

A BEAUTEOUS island is Jamaica. 
I arrived there on the twentieth of March, from 
Havana, via the north coast of Cuba and Haiti. On 
the afternoon of my arrival I called on our Consul, who 
generously placed his services at my disposal, and the 
next day visited by appointment the Governor, Sir 
Henry Blake, who received us cordially, listened atten- 
tively to my statement, and assured me that personally 
he was strongly in favor of the representation of Jamaica 
at Chicago. He promised to bring the matter before 
the Council at the earliest opportunity; meanwhile I 
was at liberty to consult with representative citizens, 
and make my mission known as widely as I chose. 
Acting upon this suggestion, that same day I visited the 
offices of the newspapers, the editors of which courte- 
ously received me and placed their columns at my dis- 
position, later proving their sincerity and good-will by 
advertising the Exposition to the fullest extent. 

There are four papers published in Kingston, the 
capital of Jamaica, three of them of a high order of 
merit. 

492 



\ 



JAMAICA AND THE WRECK OF COLUMBUS. 493 

The same evening I was present at a dinner given by 
the General Manager of the Jamaica Exposition (then 
open at Kingston) to the officers of our cruiser, the 
Philadelphia^ and had the privilege of proposing as a 
toast, " Chicago, " which was drunk with acclaim by all 
present. 

Two days later the Consul and myself lunched with 
the General Manager of the Exposition, as the guests 
of the day; my consular flag was flown from the central 
dome of the great building, and a salute of seven guns 
was given us at our arrival and departure. Two days 
after that Admiral Gherardi, of the Philadelphia, placed 
his launch under our orders; in this we proceeded to 
Port Royal, across the bay, to lunch with Commodore 
Lloyd, of H. M. S. Urgent, who received us with a 
salute from his ship, and entertained us delightfully at 
his quarters on shore. 

Port Royal is not an attractive place for residence, 
and has never recovered from the great disaster of two 
hundred years ago, when the city that was here erected, 
and which was the rendezvous of pirates and bucca- 
neers, containing vast wealth, was sunk by an earth- 
quake. Beneath the sea may yet be seen, it is said, the 
roofs of sunken houses. That tremendous catastrophe 
occurred in 1692, at the same time the Salem people 
were putting to death their kin for witchcraft ; and in 
1693, just two hundred years ago, the frightened rem- 
nant of the population abandoned a place of such dis- 
aster, and settled on the other side of the magnificent 
bay that forms the harbor of Kingston. 

Within the week of my arrival I dined at the " King's 



494 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

House " with the Governor, meeting there several dis- 
tinguished ladies, and also officers of the British army, 
and later had all I could do to attend the calls of the 
hospitable citizens of the capital. Thus was inaugurated 
the good feeling that has distinguished our relations 
with Jamaica, and which resulted in her sending' an 
exhibit to Chicago. It was anticipated that I might 
have difficulty in inducing the Government to partici- 
pate with ours in the Exposition, because there had 
been a misunderstanding by which it had seemed as 
though we had ignored their own invitation to join in 
theirs. To obviate any misconception I had been fur- 
nished with a letter from Mr. Blaine, then our Sec- 
retary of State, which was to be produced only if 
absolutely necessary ; fortunately, I had no necessity to 
use it. 

Through the courtesy of the Governors of the Jamaica 
Institute, I was invited to read a paper before that dis- 
tinguished body on " The World's Columbian Exposi- 
tion," in the lecture hall of the exposition building. 
The Jamaica Institute is a literary and scientific institu- 
tion, endowed by the home Government, and acknowl- 
edgedly in advance of any other of the kind in the West 
Indies. The time allotted me was short, but I prepared 
a comprehensive statement of our great undertaking, 
taking a wide survey of the field, assuming and holding 
an advanced position for our Government, and delivered 
my lecture before a select and appreciative audience, 
on the eleventh of April. 

Ten days later I repeated it before the Chamber of 
Commerce of Kingston, and, like the first, it was well 



JAMAICA AND THE WRECK OF COLUMBUS. 497 

received, and the substance of it published in all the 
papers the next morning. A full report of my first lec- 
ture was printed in the Post the day after it was de- 
livered. It filled eight columns of that paper, and I 
mention the fact to show that there is enterprise and 
activity in the reportorial staff of a Tropical paper that 
would do credit to a Northern journal. 

In truth, I have never found the people of the Tropics 
lacking in either energy or enterprise; the reporters 
are as assiduous in gathering news, and the boys as 
frantically athletic at cricket and baseball, here be- 
neath the blazing sun of the Tropics, as in the far- 
distant North. 

I spent seven weeks in Jamaica, and nearly every day 
was a busy one. Upon arrival, I secured quarters at 
the new Myrtle Bank Hotel, which was admirably situ- 
ated, both for business and pleasure, on the shore of the 
bay, and yet in or near the center of the town. The 
hotel has broad piazzas, surrounded by rows of cocoa 
palms, and affords fine views of the distant hills. The 
cocoas were just high enough to permit inspection of 
their crowns, and one could study the growth of flower 
and leaf, and watch the development of the great clus- 
ters of nuts, from the first appearance of the blossoms, 
protected by the overhanging spathes, to the ripened 
fruit ready to drop to the ground. It was an interest- 
ing process, this evolution of the cocoanut, and the heart 
of the palm was a never-ending source of pleasure to me. 

By moonlight, the bay and the palm groves were as 
beautiful as the most critical artist could desire. One 
night, as an experiment, I pitched my camera on the 



498 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

upper veranda, focused upon a grove of palms illumined 
by the moon, and after a half-hour's exposure with a 
rapid plate, secured a perfect picture by moonlight, 
which is one of the most interesting of the thousand 
or so that I took in my travels through the islands. 
Kingston, the capital of Jamaica, although it has a fine 
situation, on one of the best harbors in the West Indies, 
cannot be called a handsome city. It may contain 
some forty thousand inhabitants, has a few good public 
buildings, many comfortable private residences, and lat- 
terly has become possessed of two or three excellent 
hotels; but its streets are dusty, and at times filthy, 
through open drainage; the general run of houses are 
poor and squalid, and it is not an attractive place of 
residence at all. Strange to say, the country districts 
of Jamaica have better roads, and are more desirable 
for winter quarters than the capital. 

But with Kingston as headquarters, delightful excur- 
sions may be made in many directions — as to RioCobre 
and the entrancing scenery of the Bog Walk River, to 
the hills and the Blue Mountains, and into the interior. 
Around the entire island is a system of excellent roads, 
smooth and hard, leading always to most beautiful 
places, and even over the mountains run regular lines 
of stages. 

The island itself is some one hundred and forty miles 
long, by fifty broad in its widest part, and contains 
about four thousand square miles, with hills rising 
everywhere; it has one mountain seven thousand feet 
in height. 

It is a beautiful island, and when a good line of 



JAMAICA AND THE WRECK OF COLUMBUS. 499 

Steamers shall be running regularly and frequently be- 
tween it and the United States, it will become one of 
the most frequented of winter resorts. A few years 
ago there was passed an "hotel act," by which capital 
was encouraged to invest, on Government guarantees, 
and the result has been the erection of several first-, 
class establishments: one in the city, the " Myrtle 
Bank," the " Constant Spring," some six miles out, one 
at Rio Cobre, and others in the interior. 

After I had been assured that the Governor would 
recommend, and the Council would pass an appropri- 
ation for Jamaica's representation at our Exposition, and 
had filled the papers full of information regarding the 
enterprise, my presence seemed no longer necessary at 
the capital, for a few days ; I therefore accepted an in- 
vitation from the Director of the Public Gardens and 
Plantations to go with him into the mountains. The 
Director, Mr. W. Fawcett, author of the "Economic 
Plants of Jamaica," and a botanist of ability, took me to 
the Government experimental station in the mountains, 
called Cinchona, which is about six hours' ride from 
Kingston, and situated at an elevation of five thousand 
feet above the sea. Such an opportunity for consulting 
with an acknowledged authority on Jamaica's resources 
was not to be neglected, and I eagerly embraced it. It 
was an opinion of mine, and in this Mr. Fawcett con- 
curred, that Jamaica's strong point for an elaborate dis- 
play lay in her natural resources and attractions, and 
especially in her botanical products. She could hope 
for little in the way of display from such things as 
sugar, coffee, rum, bananas, etc. , and it was impressed 



500 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

upon me that she should try to elaborate what one 
might term a foliaceous exhibit of her vast wealth of 
tropical shrubs and trees — so strange to Northern e^^es. 
I would have had the different climatic zones repre- 
sented by the varying vegetation, as for instance : the 
exuberant tropical forms of the coast belt, such as 
plantains, bread-fruit, cocoa palms, etc. ; the higher 
temperate region by the cacao, mountain palm, tree- 
fern, and trumpet-trees; the mountain, or sub-alpine 
district, by the cinchona, gums, locopodiums, etc. Thus 
the entire range of vegetation could be shown at a 
glance. 

I would have had, also, a panoramic display as a 
background, such as the view of Kingston harbor from 
the sea, with the golden foot-hills, the purple mount- 
ains, and the distant Blue Mountain peak, with its cir- 
cling wreath of clouds. By massing the tropical forms 
in front, and by assigning Jamaica a space long and 
narrow, for perspective effect, a most grand and effect- 
ive picture would be presented to the beholder ; and the 
instructive nature of such an exhibit is self-evident. 

Regarding the numerous tropical plants to be re- 
moved, Jamaica, lying nearest to the United States of 
any tropical country having a perfected system of bo- 
tanical stations, and with every resource of the kind 
available, could afford an inexhaustible supply. And 
regarding the removal of the larger shrubs, and even 
trees, the Director was of the opinion that it could 
be successfully accomplished. In preparing for the 
Jamaica exposition, he superintended the removal of 
palms over forty feet in height, transporting them three 



JAMAICA AND THE WRECK OF COLUMBUS. 601 

miles, and then planting them in the park, without the 
loss of a tree. He assured me that he could remove 
successfully to Chicago, provided direct transportation 
were afforded, palm-trees over thirty feet high. A palm 
of that height, such as is the native grii-griL^ would 
weigh some six tons. The chief objections would be cli- 
matic: they should be transported at midsummer, and 
guarded against the night temperature at Chicago. In 
this connection, I might mention that the only other 
island in the West Indies possessing a botanical garden 
worthy of mention is Trinidad, which is several days' 
distance farther from the States than Jamaica. Also, 
that while the island of Cuba has essentially the same 
flora, yet there is no reliable and organized department 
similar to that presided over by Mr. Fawcett; and that, 
while the palms of Cuba would be equally worthy of 
representation, it would be impossible to obtain them, 
there being no good roads into the country districts, etc. 
In a general way, Chicago must draw upon Mexico 
and Central America, to some extent, for strange plants, 
such as orchids, etc. ; the north coast of South America, 
particularly Maracaibo, and also the Amazons ; but it is 
from such places as Trinidad and Jamaica, where gar- 
dens of acclimatization have been established for nearly 
a century, that the strangest and rarest plants may be 
obtained ready at hand. Jamaica, with its varied flora 
— with, for instance, four hundred varieties of ferns, 
situated at the very gates of the Gulf of Mexico — offers 
therefore greater attractions to the managers of the 
botanical department than any other country. 

I would like to describe the Government garden at 



502 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

Cinchona, with its exotic plants, its plantation of cin- 
chona trees, coffee, tea, its wild strawberries and tree- 
fern walks ; but I have not sufficient space for it ; nor, 
indeed, for doing justice to the thousand attractions of 
this glorious island. One of the oldest of the English 
islands, its charms have been sung many a time, and 
its resources fully exploited. 

In January, 1891, there was opened here an exhibition 
that approached the dignity of a World's Fair, and which 
continued four months. It was not financially a suc- 
cess, nor did it serve the full purpose of an exposition of 
Jamaica's resources; yet it was far from proving a fail- 
ure. England sent, as her representative. Prince George, 
the second son of the Prince of Wales. Great enthusi- 
asm was manifested at the opening; the buildings and 
grounds were crowded, and from the moment when the 
Governor presented the golden key to the Prince, as 
a declaration that the exhibition was open, to the last 
hour of its official existence, the best of order was main- 
tained throughout. Every exhibit was then found to 
be in place, and every detail of the plan elaborated in 
advance was adhered to. 

Having generously contributed to other exhibitions 
in the past, Jamaica at last thought it time herself to 
act the part of hostess, and invite visitors to her beauti- 
ful shores. The proposition is said to have emanated 
from the Jamaica Institute, and when brought to the 
attention of the Governor, Sir H. E. Blake, it received 
not only his approval, but his cordial support. In an 
eloquent address at a public meeting in September, 1889, 
he set forth the many possible advantages likely to 



JAMAICA AND THE WRECK OF COLUMBUS. 503 

accrue to the island from an exhibition of her products, 
and added: " And let the venture succeed, as I believe 
it will, or let it fail to pay its way ; at least it will show 
that Jamaica is up and doing, ready to stand in the 
forefront, and to take her natural position as the Queen 
of the British Antilles. " This advanced position His 
Excellency from the first maintained, and it was ad- 
mitted by many that his pluck and energy prevented 
the exhibition from becoming a failure. 

The exhibition idea expanded beyond the original 
conception ; the wealthy citizens subscribed freely, and 
a building was erected over five hundred feet in length 
and nearly two hundred in breadth. This structure 
was cruciform in shape, the main portion running east 
and west, with a dome in the center, which was one 
hundred feet from the ground to the lantern. The cir- 
cular roof of the nave was supported on pillars, and 
there was a continuous gallery around the building, 
inside, over four hundred feet in length. Although 
built of wood and cheaply constructed, yet this main 
structure, with its commanding central dome, its mina- 
rets, and semi-Moorish ornamentation, presented an im- 
posing appearance at a distance. From the sea it was 
even magnificent : situated over a mile and a half from 
the harbor, with a broad open space in front, and a 
background of blue and purple hills towering above 
the sloping Liguanea plains. 

It is worthy of note that the material for the struc- 
ture came from the States, but all the labor employed 
was native to the island. 

The grounds attached to the exhibition, comprising 



504 



IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 



some fifty acres, were beautifully laid out, with fine 
effects, produced by the artistic grouping of palms, 
tree-ferns, bamboos, etc. The entire building and 
grounds were lighted by electric and colored lamps, 
while on certain evenings there were splendid displays 
of fireworks which it would be hard to excel ; and on 
certain afternoons and evenings the famous black band 
of the ist West India Regiment added the attraction of 
music. Invitations were sent to the different countries 
of the world, and the somewhat limited space was soon 
filled. Of the foreign exhibitors, the Dominion of 
Canada occupied the greatest space, and through her 
active commissioners made a desperate attempt to divert 
the trade of Jamaica to her shores. That these en- 
deavors, though meriting success, will prove futile, a 
student of the situation must be convinced ; for Jamaica, 
like most of the West Indies, will continue to trade with 
the nation nearest her that can take her products — and 
that nation is the United States. 

To many observers this exhibition seemed a failure, 
it being specially urged that Jamaica herself did not 
exhibit half her products. While it may have been the 
original intention to have more fully developed the local 
resources, yet it finally came about that the foreign 
exhibits overtopped the home products, which proved 
eventually, the best thing for the island. Regarded 
merely as a financial risk, it was foredoomed to failure ; 
yet that has been the fate of nearly every exhibition of 
the kind. But, considered in its higher aspects, it was 
certainly a success of the most far-reaching kind ; for, 
if we consider its influence upon the people alone, with- 






\J 





JAMAICA AND THE WRECK OF COLUMBUS. 507 

out referring to the attention it has called to the island, 
one cannot but admit that it has been beneficial. Only 
those resident among the blacks of these islands can 
understand how it was that many of them refrained 
from visiting the exhibition at first, because they had 
been told, by some mischievous person, that the great 
building was a vast barracoon, into which the white 
men were desirous of enticing them, after which they 
would shackle them, and again sell them into slavery; 
they had been told this, and hundreds of them actually 
believed it. 

The Jamaica exhibition was a success; but I assured 
the people that, to gain its full fruition, they must not 
stop at that one effort but must seek their reward at 
Chicago, in 1893. 

Of the thousands of interesting things at the exhibi- 
tion it will be impossible to speak ; but there was one 
strange exhibit that particularly appealed to me, be- 
cause of its wonderful history. It was a bundle of old 
and ragged papers, which, in the words of my friend, 
the Rev. J. B. Ellis, the author of "The Tourist's 
Guide to Jamaica," have "a history stranger than the 
most far-fetched conception of the most imaginative 
writer of fiction. " I once wrote a story in which I made 
the plot hinge upon the finding of two leaves of an old 
book in the maw of a shark. The book had been 
brought from New England, and the shark was killed 
on the coast of Yucatan, the leaves so conveniently 
foimdin his stomach being necessary to the elaboration 
of the plot. They had been lost overboard a short time 
before. It is very comforting to an author, therefore. 



508 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

who gives free rein to the imaginative faculty, to hap- 
pen upon such a find as the following. The old adage, 
"truth stranger than fiction," is wonderfully supporting. 
For these old papers exhibited in Jamaica, and of which 
I had never heard before, have a history which puts my 
invention to the blush. It seems that in the year 1799, 
a brig, the Nancy ^ was captured by a British cutter, 
the Sparrozu, and brought into Port Royal, where her 
officers were put on trial for piracy. No papers, how- 
ever, were found on her, and the prosecution was on 
the point of breaking down for want of evidence ; but 
it was soon forthcoming from an unexpected quarter. 
About that time a British man-of-war was off the har- 
bor of Jacmel, coast of Haiti, and one day the officers 
amused themselves by fishing for sharks. One of the 
sharks caught was drawn on deck and cut open, and in 
its belly the sailors found a bundle of papers. Sailing 
for Kingston soon after, the papers were sent on shore 
by the captain, who knew nothing of the capture of the 
Nancy. They arrived while the trial was going on, 
and an investigation showed them to be the missing 
papers of that vessel, which had been thrown overboard 
by her captain, but which were presented in court just 
in time to be used against him, and secured the convic- 
tion and subsequent hanging of the crew of the vessel 
as pirates. Can, indeed, any fiction be stranger than 
this truth? 

The animating and supporting spirit of the exhibi- 
tion was the Governor, Sir H. A. Blake, K. C. M. G., 
formerly executive of the Bahamas, whose administra- 
tion in both the Bahamas and Jamaica has brought him 



JAMAICA AND THE WRECK OF COLUMBUS. 509 

prominently before the people of America. He has 
a worthy consort in his talented wife, and the varied 
accomplishments of Lady Blake have added luster to 
the achievements of the Governor. She is an artist 
of reputation, and her aquarelle of "the Landfall of 
Columbus," which was on exhibition at the Jamaica 
court, was but one of many meritorious works her 
genius has evoked. Possessed of a scientific and in- 
quiring mind. Lady Blake has left the impress of her 
talent and industry wherever she has been. While Sir 
Henry was Governor of Newfoundland, she made a col- 
lection of water colors of the plants of that country ; in 
the Bahamas, likewise, she reproduced in colors all, or 
nearly all, of the flowering plants of that chain, exhib- 
iting at the Indian and Colonial Exhibition of 1886 a 
series of over one hundred. All were correct botanical 
studies, faithful representations of the plants illustrated, 
besides being artistically beautiful. She has commenced 
a series illustrating the flora of Jamaica; those that she 
was kind enough to show me having, besides the flow- 
ers, specimens of insects, such as butterflies and moths, 
and sometimes bits of characteristic landscape as a 
background. As to her indefatigable industry in fer- 
reting out the remains of aboriginal occupation, espe- 
cially in the Bahamas, I myself am an unwilling witness, 
having vainly sought for Indian relics in the region 
visited by her, and which I was desirous of finding. 

With a salary of six thousand pounds per annum, and 
another thousand as allowance for entertainment, the 
Governor exercises a lavish hospitality, and the " King's 
House " is a most desirable place to visit. 



510 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS, 

From the delicate attentions of these gracious people 
of Kingston, who all contributed to make my short stay- 
in the island so agreeable, I was obliged to tear myself 
away, after my duties to the Exposition were accom- 
plished, and sail for other scenes. 

But I have not forgotten that the great Navigator has 
not even been mentioned in this chapter. Having be- 
gun with the adventures of Columbus in Spain, on his 
first voyage, in the Bahamas; having seen the founda- 
tion of the first city; taken with him that eventful sec- 
ond voyage, and the equally adventurous third, we have 
only to trace out his fourth and last voyage, in which 
he coasted a second time along the shores of Jamaica, 
and explored the mainland from Yucatan to Darien. 
Thus we shall complete our investigations and be with 
him at his death. For that last voyage was nothing 
less than that: death to his hopes, death to his hitherto 
buoyant spirit. 

It was on the ninth of May, 1502, that Columbus left 
Cadiz, Spain, on his fourth and last voyage to the New 
World, with four small vessels and one hundred and 
fifty men. He found land about midway the Caribbee 
chain of islands, and thence steered for Santo Domingo. 
The Governor refused him admittance to the harbor, 
and the Admiral was compelled to seek shelter from an 
impending storm in a small port on the south side of 
the island. The hurricane came, as Columbus had pre- 
dicted, and a fleet of vessels, that was on the point of 
sailing for Spain, was destroyed, carrying down the old 
enemy of the Admiral, Bobadilla, who two years before 
had sent him to Spain in chains. With Bobadilla went 



JAMAICA AND THE WRECK OF COLUMBUS. 



511 



to the bottom of the sea the largest nugget of gold ever 
found in Santo Domingo. 

Continuing his course, Columbus coasted the south 
shore of Haiti, whence he was swept over to Cuba, 
thence across nearly to Yucatan, and southwardly to 




DON CHRISTOPHER'S COVE, WHERE COLUMBUS' S CARAVELS WERE 
WRECKED, 1503. 

Honduras. A landing was made at Cape Honduras, near 
the present town of Truxillo, where large numbers of 
Indians were seen, who gave the Spaniards provisions. 
For several months after this the vessels were beating 
about the Mosquito coast, finding little gold, but learn- 
ing of the rich province of Veragua, from which the 
grandson of Columbus, Don Luis, derived his title of 
Duke of Veragua, which is held by the only living 
descendant to-day. 



512 IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 

The Admiral explored the coast as far south as Da- 
rien, vainly seeking for a strait or passage through to the 
Pacific, and at last, after repeated disaster and the loss 
of many men, he shaped his course northwardly. He 
was carried by the currents to the south coast of Cuba, 
and in an endeavor to regain the island of Hispaniola, 
was swept back to the north coast of Jamaica. Here 
he encountered a dreadful storm that nearly wrecked 
his ships, but finally reached a sheltering harbor, into 
which he ran, on the last of June, 1503. 

His vessels, he wrote, were bored as full of holes as a 
honeycomb, he had lost nearly all his anchors, and his 
crews were worn out with constant watching and bat- 
tling with the elements. Seeking a fit harbor for the 
purpose, the Admiral ran his sinking ships ashore, 
where the water soon filled them up to the decks; then 
he fastened them together, built thatched cabins at 
prow and stern, and resigned himself and men to a 
dreary waiting for rescue that lasted nearly a year. 

Six months they waited, and then, weary of the re- 
straint, many of the crew broke out in mutiny. Headed 
by one Francisco de Porras, they broke into the Ad- 
miral's cabin, where he was sick with the gout, and 
demanded permission to go on shore. Columbus and 
his brother, Don Bartholomew, were powerless to re- 
strain them, and they departed, ranging the island, and 
eventually committing many dreadful excesses. The 
island of Jamaica swarmed with Indians, who at first 
brought provisions to the Spaniards, but after a while 
left them to their fate. Being in imminent danger of 
starvation, the Admiral had recourse to stratagem to 



JAMAICA AND THE WRECK OF COLUMBUS. 513 

obtain the needed supplies, and summoning the ca- 
ciques of all the near tribes, he told them that unless 
they brought supplies to him as he wished, he should 
deprive them of the light of the moon. He had calcu- 
lated a total eclipse of the moon, due to take place 
within a few days, and availed himself of his superior 
knowledge to impose upon the guileless aborigines. 

True to his prediction, on the night in question, the 
lunar orb was shut out from their sight, and amidst 
bowlings and supplications, they promised Columbus 
anything he wanted if he would only restore the light 
of the moon. The crafty old Admiral retired to the 
shelter of his cabin, and about the time the eclipse was 
to pass he emerged, and told them that his prayers had 
been heard, and that the light would be restored — but 
only on condition that they keep him supplied with pro- 
vision during his stay. This they gladly did, and after 
that the sailors lacked for nothing which the Indians 
could supply. 

Having in mind the connection of Jamaica with the 
most eventful episode in the later voyages of Columbus, 
I prepared to visit the north coast of the island — the 
scene of his shipwreck. I had identified the spot where 
occurred the disaster to the Santa Maria, on the coast 
of Haiti, in December, 1492 ; to conclude my investiga- 
tions into the career of Columbus in America, it only 
remained for me to visit and determine the scene of his 
last shipwreck, in 1503. Constant demands upon my 
time prevented the consummation of my desires imtil 
the last week of my stay, when I broke away from town, 
and accomplished all that could be done. 



514 



IN THE WAKE OF COLUMBUS. 



The center of attraction, to one following in the foot- 
steps of Columbus, is about St. Ann's bay, into which 
he sailed in June, 1503, and which was called by him 
Santa Gloria. The parish of St. Ann's is the most 
beautiful spot in Jamaica. Says an old writer: ''Earth 




THE BAY OF ST. ANN'S, — JAMAICA. 



has nothing more lovely than the pastures and pimento 
groves of St. Ann's; " and so far as I could see, he was- 
right. 

This bay I visited and photographed; but the actual 
site of the wreck — or rather the spot where Columbus 
ran his vessels ashore, and was for a twelvemonth 
"castled in the sea" — is a mile to the south. It is 
called Don Christopher's Cove, never- varying tradition. 



JAMAICA AND THE WRECK OF COLUMBUS. 515 

perpetuating the story of that event, how, the vessels 
of the Admiral being leaky and full of holes, he ordered 
them to be run aground, and finding them to be half- 
filled with water built thatched huts upon the decks. 
Don Christopher's Cove is a beautiful little bay, between 
walls of coral rock, with a beach of yellow sand over- 
hung with thickets of sea-grapes. It seems just the 
place a mariner would choose in which to strand a sink- 
ing vessel, the sloping shore giving a secure resting- 
place, and the near coral ledges affording protection 
from stormy seas and the heaviest gales. 

Here Columbus remained a year, until finally succored 
by a vessel sent from Santo Domingo. He miglit have 
perished had it not been for the brave action of one of 
his sailors, Diego Mendez, who, in an open canoe, with 
Indians to paddle it, crossed the broad channel between 
Jamaica and Haiti, and carried the news of his disaster 
to the Governor of Santo Domingo. About midway in 
the channel is the island of Navassa, at which Mendez 
landed, finding there a little water, but for which he 
and his men would have perished; and Columbus also 
might have died in Jamaica, instead of later expiring in 
Spain. He was rescued in May, 1504, and two years 
after he died at Valladolid, worn out with his arduous 
toils. 

Having now followed in the wake of the Great Admi- 
ral in his various voyagings, visiting all the islands he 
discovered and the seas in which he sailed, we will 
leave him here, at the scene of his last and most unfor- 
tunate adventure, on the north coast of Jamaica. 



INDEX 



Aboriginal Celts, 8i, S2 ; seat of carved 

wood, 82. 
Aborigines of the Bahamas, 74 ; extinction 

of, 84. 
Acul, bay of, 219. 
Ackl'n's Island, go. 
Admiral's landfall, where ? 85. 
Aguada, bay of, 392. 
Agueynaba, Indian cacique, 392. 
Aguadilla, bay of, 391. 
Ajes, Haitien roots, 225. 
Ajoupa, or Carib hut, 196. 
Albert's town, Bahamas, 62. 
Alhambra, palace of, 8 ; hall of justice in, 

22. 
Alix, Senor, 334, 

Altars, Santo Domingo cathedral, 351-356. 
Americapan, aboriginal word, 4S7. 
Americas Vespucci, 487-4S9. 
Anchor, ancient, from the Santa Maria, 

230-234. 
Anacaona, Indian princess, 363. 
Anguilla, island of, 442. 
Antigua, island of, 453. 
Annexation, desired by West Indies, 139. 
Antiquities, aboriginal, 78, 350. 
Appleton, Captain N., 289. 
Arenas, islas de, loi. 
Arroyo of Chancleta, 318; port of Puerto 

Rico, 393. 
Astrolabe, used by Columbus, 53. 
Atalaya, Moorish watch-tower, 68. 
Author's table of islands discovered by 

Columbus, 102. 
Ave Maria, painting of, 361, 



Bahamas, when discovered, S5 ; aborigi- 
nes of, 74; cruise through, 105-no ; their 
lost opportunity, iii; travel in, 117; 
history and flora of, 118. 

Babeque, aboriginal name, 217. 

Balandra Head, 292. 

Balboa, Marquis de, 132. 

Bajo-Bonico, tiver of Santo Domingo, 262. 

Bandits of Cuba, 140. 

Banyan-tree, 460. 

Baptismal book, Santo Domingo, 350, 378. 

Basse terre, town of, 451, 457. 

Basle, treaty of, 371. 

Baracoa, port of, 162-166. 

Barbuda, island of, 454. 

Barcelona, 239. 

Baird, Mr. Alexander, 299. 

Bay of Samana, 293 ; of Arrows, 294. 

Becher, Capt. A. B., 86. 

Behechio, Indian cacique, 312. 

Bell, ancient, of Santo Cerro, 316; of the 
fig-tree, 326 ; of Jacagua, 276. 

Belem, church of, 143. 

Bellini, Padre, 326, 374; General, 328. 

Bellamar, caves of, 157. 

Beasts of burden, 288. 

Berezillo, famous bloodhound, 39. 

Bimini, island of, 409. 

Bird rock, Bahamas, 64, 96. 

Birds of Bahamas, 97, 98. 

Bird notes, 466. 

Blaine, Hon. J. G., instructions from, 129. 

Blake, Sir H., 76, 492, 508 ; Lady, 119, 509. 

Boatmen of Santo Domingo, 278. 

Boca del Serpiente, 484. 



Bog-walk (Boca del agua) river, 49S. 
Bohio (Haiti), 217. 
Boveda (vault) of Columbus, 381. 
Bottom, town of, 431-433. 
Borinquen (Puerto Rico), 388. 
Bread, native, 95. 
Bread-fruit, 443. 
Brazil-line steamers, 413. 
Bridge of Pines, 18. 
Briggs, Sir Graham, 451. 
British consulate at Puerto Plata, 284. 
Buccaneers, origin of the, 192, 196. 
Bullocks and bull-carts of Santo Domingo, 
279, 287. 



Cacao, fruit of, 442. 

Cannon, ancient, from Santo Domingo, 

345 ; from Tortola, 425. 
Cathedral of Santo Domingo, 351, 356; 

chapels of, 356-360. 
Cat Island, 107 ; caves of, 108. 
Casa blanca, Puerto Rico, 407. 
Castries, town of, 473. 
Capesterre, Guadeloupe, 459. 
" Camps in the Caribbees," 459. 
Caonabo, Indian chieftain, 22S, 271, 311. 
Caciques of Espanola, 311. 
Castle, oldest in America, 343. 
Casa del Cordon, 353. 
Caribs, incised figures of the, 424 ; first 

discovered, 456 ; homes of the, 462 ; 

speech of the, 465; islands of, 471; 

relics of, 477 ; black, 478 ; yellow, 482 ; 

present status of, 484. 
Caribbee Islands, 461. 
Caravels of Columbus, 217. 
Cadiz, city of, 240. 
Cathay, mention of, 103. 
Carved seats of lignurn vitje, 82. 
Cannibalism in Haiti, igo. 
Captain-general of Cuba, 131. 
Cattle, loading, coast of Cuba, 161. 
Canary Islands, 54. 
Caves, of Watling's Island, 76 ; of Cat 

Island, 77. 
Casa de Colon, 344. 
Cassava, native bread, 95. 
Cambiaso. Mr., 374. 



Castillo, Mr., 374. 

Canoe, first seen by Europeans, 72 ; found 
in a cave, 89. 

Cartman, encounter with a, 281. 

Ceboyan (Indian of the Bahamas), 75. 

Celts, Indian antiquities, 81,274; of Ba- 
hamas, compared with others, 82. 

Chateaubelair, town of, 476. 

Chicago, commissioners meet in, 122 ; its 
spirit of enterprise, 123 ; Herald's ex- 
pedition, lOI. 

Christmas, first American, 217. 

Christophe, emperor of Haiti, 202 ; palace 
and castle of, 206-216. 

Charlotte Amalia, St. Thomas, 415. 

Cibao (land of gold), 225, 260 ; hotel, 282. 

Cipango, 98. 

Club del comercio, Santo Domingo, 283. 

Cockburn town, Watling's Island, 64. 

Coaling stations in the West Indies, 414, 
416. 

Codrington family and college, 454. 

Colardeau, M. St. Felix, 459. 

Cocoa palms, study of, 497. 

Columbus, first appearance of, at Granada, 
15; before Isabella, 17; at the Bridge 
of Pines, 18; birth and early years, 24; 
in Portugal, 24; arrival in Spain, 24; 
at Cordova and Salamanca, 24 ; at the 
Monastery of La Rabida, 25 ; signs ca- 
pitulation with Spanish sovereigns, 26 ; 
sets out for Palos, 26 ; memorials of, 26 ; 
marble tablet to, 27 ; again at La Rabida, 
38 ; departure on first voyage, 52 ; his 
discoveries at sea, 54 ; landfall of, 56 ; 
landing-place at Watling's Island, 69; 

V- journal of, 55 ; landing of, in the Baha- 
mas, 71 :i^description by, of the Indians, 
71 ; vaborigines discovered by, 73 et seq. ; 

/landfall of, critically examined,' 85 et 
seq.; at Guanahani, 89; sails around 
Guanahani, 90 ; discovers other islands, 
92-96 ; sails for Cuba, loi ; statue of, at 
Nassau, 116; tablet-bust of, Havana, 
121, 151 ; instructions to commissioner 
regarding rehcs of, 128 ; bust and statues 
of, Cuba, 149, 150; alleged remains of, 
Havana, 151 ; on coast of Cuba, 158-166 ; 
wreck of flag-ship, Santa Maria, 221 ; 
guest of Guacanagari, 222 ; builds fort 



INDEX. 



at Navidad, 225 ; coasts shores of Santo 
Domingo, 235 ; discovers mermaids and 
gold, 236 ; enters Samana Bay, 294 ; 
first sheds Indian blood, 294 ; hears of 
the Amazon Island, 295 ; sails for Spain, 
238 ; anchors at Palos, 239 ; is received 
at court, at Barcelona, 239 ^--departs on 
second voyage, 240 ; founds town of 
Isabella, 241 et seq. ; explores interior 
of Santo Domingo, 261 ; finds gold and 
erects fort, 267 ; views the Royal Plain, 
308; subjugates the Indians, 312 ; makes 
slaves of Indians, 313 ; erects a cross at 
Santo Cerro, 314; builds forts in the 
mountains, 321 ; where were the bones 
•of ? 363-387 ; the tomb of, 363 ; statue of, 
Santo Domingo, 363,369 ; duality of, 363 ; 
first burial-place, 364; second burial- 
place, 364 ; remains of, taken to Santo 
Domingo, 367 ; alleged transfer to Cuba, 
371 ; boveda, or vault, of, Santo Domingo 
cathedral, 373, 384; recent discovery of 
remains, 373 ; casket containing ashes 
•of) 375) 377 i tablet above vault of, 384 ; 
author views remains of, 386 ; opinion 
as to last resting-place, 387 ; discovers 
Puerto Rico, 388; returns to Santo Do- 

i/ mingo, 389 ; second voyage of, 455 ; 
[^' third voyage of, 484; among the Pearl 

(/■ Islands, 486 ; imprisoned, 487 ; last voy- 
age of, 510 ; on coast of Honduras and 
Veragua, 511 ; is driven by storm to 
Jamaica, 512 ; strands his vessels at 
Santa Gloria, 512 ; predicts an eclipse of 
the moon, 513 ; scene of shipwreck in 
Jamaica, 514 ; last venture of, 515 ; death 
■of, 515 ; Bartholomew, brother of Chris- 
topher, 338 ; burial-place of, 353 ; Diego, 
son of Christopher, 345 ; house of, 344 ; 
in chains, 349 ; Don Luis, grandson of 
Christopher, 373. 

Commissioners, appointed, 122 ; depart on 
their mission, 123 ; instructions to, 124 ; 
local, appointed in Cuba, 131. 

Compass, variation of, noted by Colum- 
bus, 53. 

Concepcion de la Vega, 321; fortress of, 
323 ; relics from, 325. 

Conquistadores, 27, 29, 276. 

Col ton, first discovered by Columbus, 90. 



Cotubanama, Indian cacique, 311. 

Conchs of the Bahamas, 118. 

Crania, Indian, 75, 77, 165. 

Crooked Island, Bahamas, 60, 96. 

Cross of Santo Domingo, 358 ; of Santo 
Cerro, 360. 

Cuba, discovered, loi ; circumnavigated, 
103; the author in, 121; political state 
of, 137; bandits in, 140; outline of his- 
tory of, 147 ; as a center of colonization, 
153 ; along the north coast of, 159. 

Curacao, island of, 487. 

Curtis, Mr. W. E., 145. 



Dare, Virginia, birth of, 195. 

Dessalines, Haitien general, 201. 

Diamond Rock, 472 

Divers, black, at Nassau, 113 

Diaz, jMiguel, discovers gold in Santo 

Domingo, 338. 
Diego Columbus, son of Christopher, 345. 
Dog, the dumb, 163. 
Domingo Rubio, river of Spain, 40. 
Dominicans, 297. 
Dominica, island of, 462. 
Don Christopher's Cove, Jamaica, 515. 
Douglas, F., 168. 
Drake, Sir Y ., 194, 195. 
Duquesne, Marquis of, 132. 
Durham, Mr., 348. 



E 



Eco DEL Pueblo newspaper, 334. 

Earthquake-buried cities, 321. 

Ellis, Rev. J. B., 493- 

English in West Indies, in ; first appear- 
ance in West Indies, 193. 

Escudo (coat of arms), ancient, 354. 

Espanola (Santo Domingo), 238. 

Exposition, directions from executives of, 
123; exploiting the, in Cuba, 135; in 
Haiti, 176; first foreign building at, 
179; ancient relics for the, 276, 320; 
the Jamaica, 493 et seq. 



INDEX. 



Farm, a Bahaman, 66. 

Fajardo, port of Puerto Rico, 393. 

Fauna of Bahamas, 98. 

Fawcett, Mr., Jamaica, 499. 

Fernandina, Bahamas, 95. 

Filibusters, their origin, 196. 

Fort de France, Martinique, 469. 

Fortune Island, Bahamas, 57 ; sharks of, 

61. 
Fountain of Youth, 409. 
Fox, Capt. G. v., 86. 
Frenchman's Wells, Bahamas, 98. 
French, first voyages of, to West Indies, 

193 ; planters in West Indies, 193 ; 

massacre of, in Haiti, 200. 
Fruits of the West Indies, 461. 



G 

Galleons, Spanish, 197. 

Galvan, Sefior, 326. 

Game-cocks of Puerto Rico, 405. 

Garcilasso de la Vega, 12. 

Ghosts of Isabella, 258. 

Gherardi, Admiral, 493. 

Gibbs, George, paper on landfall of 

Columbus, 87. 
Goat without horns, the, 190. 
Gold, altar gilded with first, from America, 

49 ; first seen in America, by Columbus, 

72; discovered by Columbus, 237, 259; 

of the river Yanico, 267 ; dust and 

flakes from the Yanico, 274; of river 

Hayna, 339. 
Golden sands, river of the, 275 ; grove 

estate of, 476. 
Golfo de las Flechas, 294. 
Gonaives, island of, 167. 
Gosnold, B., in West Indies, 195. 
Graham's Harbor, Bahamas, 91. 
Granada, gardens of, i ; conquest of, 8, 

15- 
Grand Turk, island of, 83, 87. 
Grand Khan, the, 163. 
Green's Harbor, Bahamas, 93. 
Guacanagari, Indian cacique, 219, 222, 

227; possessions of, 311; ill-treatment 

and fate of, 390. 



Guarico, Indian tcren, 2-22, 224, 227. 

Guarionex, cacique, 311, 321 ; province of, 
taken by Columbus, 312. 

Guadalquivir, river of, 30. 

Guadeloupe, island of, 455-462. 

Guanahani, first land discovered by Colum- 
bus, 72 ; described by Columbus, 90 ; 
author's departure from, 106. 

Gundlach, Dr., of Cuba, 145. 



H 

Haiti, derivation of the word, 218;, 
author's arrival at, 167 ; foreigners and 
their rights in, 171 ; the president of, 
175; resources of, 179; decadence of, 
182 ; revolutions in, 182 ; description 
of, 186; martial law in, 187; massacre 
in, 200. 

Haitien revolutionists, 183 ; civilization, 
the, 187; serpent worship, 188; inde- 
pendence, 201 ; Cape, 203-226. 

Hammocks, when first seen by Columbus,, 
74- 

Hatuey, Cuban cacique, 164. 

Hawkins, Sir John, 194. 

Hawk's bells, used in trade with Indians, 
325- 

Hayna, gold region of, 339. 

Haynes-Smith, Sir W. F., 453. 

Hamilton, Alexander, birthplace of, 451. 

Havana, cathedral of, 130 ; author's ar- 
rival at, 131; a glance at, 136; news- 
papers of, 142, 148 ; art and literature 
of, 143 ; museums of, 144 ; the founding 
of, 149; captain-general's palace in, 150. 

Henwood, Cornwall, 445. 

Herrera, historian, 70. 

Heureaux, President, of Santo Domingo, 
391- 

High woods, the, 459. 

Holy hill, the, 302. 

Horses, first used in America, 263. 

Homenage, castle of the, 341, 362. 

Hotels of Jamaica, 499. 

Huelva, city of, 48. 

Hungria, Sefior, 268. 

Hutia, or utia, animal of Cuba, 164. 

Hyot, M. Charies, 460. 



INDEX. 



Icterus Oberi (a West Indian bird), 453. 

Iguana, the, loi. 

Imperial parrot, 466. 

Inscriptions on Columbus casket, 375, 380. 

Inagua, island of, 56. 

Indians first seen by Columbus, 71 ; dis- 
covered by Columbus, 73 ; crania of 
Lucayan, 75; antiquities of the, 78; of 
Haiti, 217; of Santo Domingo, 263, 
271 ; of Samana Bay, 294; Indian ca- 
ciques of Santo Domingo, 311. 

Invisible bird, the, 481. 

Irving, Washington, references to, 55 ; 
theory of landfall, 87. 

Isabella, queen, at Santa Fe, 15; island 
of, loi ; town of, founded, 241-246 ; 
author's visit to, 243 ; relics and remains 
of, 248-250 ; abandonment of, 251 ; map 
of, 251 ; idols from, 256, 



Jacagua, ancient city of, 275 ; view of, 
329 ; ruins of, 334 ; history of, 336, 

Jamaica, 492-515; author's visit to, 492; 
the Institute of, 494 ; newspapers of, 
497 ; hotels of, 499 ; floral display of, 
500; exposition of, 502; Columbus in, 

JI2-5I5- 
Jibara, Cuba, port entered by Columbus, 

159. 
Josephine, empress, birthplace of, 469. 
Journal of Columbus, 71, 88, 89. 



K 

King's House, Jamaica, 494. 
Kingston, Jamaica, 492 et seq. 
Kingstown, St. Vincent, 474, 476. 



Ladder, the, of Saba, 429. 
Lake dwellers, of Venezuela, 488-490. 
Landfall of Columbus, 55, 85, 90; authori- 
ties on, 87. 
La Ferriere, castle of, 206, 216. 
La Merced, church of, 355. 



Las Casas, Bishop, 354. 

Latin-American Department, Exposition, 

122, 146. 
Le Clerc, General, in Haiti, 201. 
Lemonade, Count of, 202. 
Llenas, Dr., 2S9. 
Lombard, ancient, from Santo Domingo, 

317- 
Long Island, Bahamas, 95. 
Lonja at Seville, archives of, 27. 
Loup-garous, of Haiti, 1S9. 
Lucayan Indians, of Bahamas, 74 ; skulls 

of, 75. 
Luquillo, mountain of, 393. 

M 

Macuquina (cut coins) of Puerto Rico, 

407. 
Mail, coat of, fragment found, 289. 
Manatees of the Rio Yaqui, 236. 
Madanino, island of, 295. 
Manuscripts, ancient, 350. 
Maracaibo, gulf of, 488. 
Marmalade, Duke of, 202. 
Martinique, island of, 466-470. 
Marigalante, island of, 456. 
McLelland, Mr., 298. 
McLain, Mr., consul at Nassau, 115. 
Matanzas, Cuba, 157 ; manchineel apples, 

194. 
Martyr, Petrus, old writer, 163. 
Marco Polo, as read by Columbus, 163. 
Mama-loi, Voudous priestess, 190. 
Maysi, Cape of, Cuba, 165. 
Melpomene, bust of, 216. 
Mermaids, found by Columbus, 236, 
Merino, Monsenor, 350. 
Mint, old, Santo Domingo, 356, 359. 
Misery, Mount, 449. 
Monument at Isabella, 289. 
Montserrat, island of, 451. 
Monte Cristi, Columbus at, 235. 
Moclin, siege of, 21. 
Moguer, and Palos, 33 ; church at, 36. 
Monastery of La Rabida, 38-4S. 
Morgan, the pirate, 197. 
Moreau de St. Mery, historian, 368. 
Morro, of Havana, 133 ; of Puerto Rico, 



INDEX. 



Murdock, Lieutenant, 87. 
Murillo, painting ascribed to, 358. 
Myrtle-bank hotel, Jamaica, 497. 
Millet, valley of, 208. 

N 

Nairn, Captain, 65. 

Nassau, Bahamas, 109, 115. 

Navarrete, historian, 89. 

Navassa, island of, 515. 

Navidad, fortress of, 226; site of, 227; 

massacre at, 228, 240. 
Negroes, brought to Haiti, 19S. 
Nelson, Lord, at Nevis, 451. 
Nevis, island of, 451. 
New Providence, island of, 109. 
Newport, Sir C, 195. 
Nouet, Governor, 457. 
Nuevitas, Cuba, 159. 
Nuggets of gold, Santo Domingo, 267 ; 

large, from Santo Domingo, 340. 



O'Brien, Rev. Father, 289. 

Ojeda, Alonzo de, 272 ; burial-place of, 

353 ; in Guadeloupe, 456 ; voyage of, 

487. 
Ovies, Don Ricardo, 335. 
Ozama River, 340. 



Padre, the, of Santo Cerro, 316. 

Palos, author's visit to, 31 ; Irving's jour- 
ney to, 31; village and church of, 33, 
34; to La Rabida, 37; return of Colum- 
bus to, 239. 

Palms of Cuba, 125. 

Papa-loi, priest of the Voudous, 190. 

Papers, old, recovered from a shark, 508. 

Paria, gulf of, 486 

Passailaigue, Mr., owner of Isabella, 289. 

Parrots, seen by Columbus, 90. 

Pearls, pink, 118. 

Pearl islands, the, 486. 

Petit Ansa, Haiti, 227. 

Petrifactions of Antigua, 454. 

Peter the Great, a buccaneer, 197. 

Piccolet, Point, Haiti, 226. 



Phipps, Sir William, finds treasure, 198, 

Pinzon, Martin Alonzo, 25, 71, 237. 

Pitch Lake, of Trinidad, 485. 

Pitons of St. Lucia, 473. 

Plant Line steamers, to Havana, 131. 

Poey, Don Felipe, 144. 

Ponce de Leon, conquistador, 390 ; house 
of, 407 ; discovers Florida, 409 ; last 
resting-place, 410 ; epitaph on, 411. 

Ponce, port of Puerto Rico, 394. 

Pointe a pitre, Guadeloupe, 457. 

Porte au Prince, Haiti, 167 ; streets of, 
169; revolutions in, 170; newspapers of, 
170; massacre in, 1S4. 

Port Royal, Jamaica, 493. 

Porvenir, el, newspaper, 288. 

Privilegio (immunity), 357. 

President of Santo Domingo, the, 285. 

Puerta de Perdon, the, 357; bautismo, 
the, 361. 

Puerto Plata, 238, 277 et seq. 

Puerto de los Caballeros, the, 262. 

Puerto Rico, island of, 388-412; when 
discovered, 38S; arms of, 388; settle- 
ment of, 393 ; capital of, 394 ; captain- 
general of, 401 ; aborigines of, 402. 

Q 

Quadrupeds seen by Columbus, 90; of 
Cuba, 164. 

Quebec Line steamers, 453. 

Quisqueya, native name of Santo Do- 
mingo, 218. 

R 

Rabida, La, monastery of, 38; Columbus 
at, 38 ; description of, 40 ; mirador of, 

47. 

Raleigh, Sir W., at Trinidad, 195. 

Railroad in Santo Domingo, 286 ; from 
Samana to Santiago, 299, 301. 

Reed, Don Juan, 34S. 

Repartimientos (apportionments of In- 
dians), 392. 

Riding Rocks, harbor of, 64. 

Rio del Oro, 235, 263. 

Rio Tinto, Spain, 31, 40. 

Restos (remains) of Columbus, 363-387 ; 
"los, de Colon," 384. 



INDEX. 



Roque Cocchia, Monsenor, 384. 
Route of Columbus, map of, 99. 
Royal Academy of Spain, 381. 
Royal Plain, the, 308, 319. 
Rum Cay, Bahamas, 92, 106. 



Saba, island of, 420-447. 

Saints and Virgins, 413-425. 

Saint Ann's, Jamaica, bay of, 514; Barts, 
island of, 442 ; Eustatius, 442, 449 ; 
John's, 413, 423 ; Kitt's, 448, 450 ; Mar- 
tins, 442 ; Thomas, 414 et seq. ; Ursula, 
413 ; Vincent, 474-484. 

Saint Vincent, volcano of, 481 ; Caribs of, 

483. 

Saint John, Sir Spencer. 185. 

Samt Lucia, 472 ; Pierre, city of, 467. 

Saint Nicolas, Mole, 218. 

Saltes, bar of, Spain, 48. 

Samana, bay of, 292, 296. 

Sanchez, Santo Domingo, 298, 302 

Sauctissima Trinidad, 357. 

San-coche, native dish, 308. 

San Antonio, church of, 355 ; Jose de las 
Matas, 272, 274; Juan de Puerto Rico, 
395 ; Nicolas, church of, 354 ; Miguel, 
church of, 355 ; Francisco, convent of, 

353- 
Sans souci, palace of, 208. 
Santa Barbara, church of, 355 ; town of, 

296 ; Cruz, island of, 413 ; Fe, city of, 

Spain, 9, 10 ; Gloria, bay of, Jamaica, 

SM. 
Santa Maria, flag-ship of Columbus, 220; 

wreck of the, 222 ; reliquia (holy relic), 

357- 
Santiago de los Caballeros, city, 268; road 

to, 331 ; description of, 332. 
Santo Cerro, shrine of, 306-3 10 ; cross of, 

357- 
Santo Domingo, city of, 338-346 ; people 

of, 348; cathedral of, 350, 356-362; 

church of, 354; convents of, 356-362; 

island of, 259-387. 
Sargasso Sea and weed, 52, 53, 70. 
Saunders, Mr., vice-consul, U. S., Nassau, 

115- 
Savannas of Santo Domingo, 303. 



Second voyage of Columbus, 240. 

Sereno (night-watchman), 284. 

Serpent-worship in Haiti, 188. 

Seville, Spain, treasures of, 26-30. 

Sharks, in the Bahamas, 6i. 

Shea, Sir Ambrose, 109. 

Silk-cotton tree, 116. 

Silver mountain-port of the, 277. 

Silla (choir-stall), Santo Domingo, 357. 

Skull, aboriginal, 75, 77. 

Slave-trade, growth of, 198-300. 

Smith, Captain John, in the West Indies, 
195. 

Spain, allusion to early history of, 5. 

Soufriere of St. Lucia, 473 ; of St. Vin- 
cent, 481. 

Stewart, Mr., consul at Puerto Rico, 398. 

Swords of the conquistadores, 336. 

Sun dial, old, Santo Domingo, 346. 



Tejera, Sr., Emiliano, 384. 
Templet^ of Havana, 149. 
" Thunderbolts" (Indian celts), 81. 
Tobacco, first found, 95 ; seen in Cuba, by 
Columbus, 158; of Santo Domingo, 286. 
Tomb of Columbus, 314. 
Toledo swords, found in Santo Domingo, 

336- 
Tortola, old coins of, 425. 
Tortuga, island of, 56, 193. 
Torrecilla de Colon, 343. 
Toussaint I'Ouverture, 200. 
Trade winds, 53. 
Tree of Columbus, 314. 
Tree ferns, 440. 
Trinidad, island of, 484-486. 
Turk's Island, 82, 163. 

u 

University, the first in America, 354. 
Utia, or dumb dog, 74, 164. 

V 

Van Horne, Dutch privateer, 197. 
Vega, the royal, Santo Domingo, 299, 305, 



Vega Vieja (old vega), 321 ; church of, 325 ; 
bell obtained at, 326 ; excavations at, 

329- 
Veragua, Duke of, 372. 
Verde, Rio, 330. 

Velasquez, paintings ascribed to, 360, 
Venezuela, discovery of, 489. 
Vespucci, Americus, 487-489. 
Virgin of Providencia, 398 ; Gorda, 423. 
Voudouism, in Haiti, 1S9. 

w 

Ward Line, steamers of, 109, 120. 
Washerwomen of Haiti, 290 ; of Santo 

Domingo, 297. 
Watling's Island, 56, 65 ; map of, 85 ; 

natives of, 105. 



Wellman, Walter, explores Bahamas, 102. 
Wilberforce's plea in House of Commons, 
199. 



Yagua (" palm bark "), 30S. 

Yanico, Santo Tomas de, 264; first fort 

built at, 267, 272 ; author's visit to, 268. 
Yaqui River, 236, 337; valley of the, 263. 
Yumuri valley, Cuba, 155. 
Yunque, Cuban mountain, 162 ; mountain 

of Puerto Rico, 411. 



z 

ZuBiA, crosses of, 21, 



